After building a wooden Cockpit with two Quickshot Master Pilots for MFD’s and an X Keys 20 as an ICP, I began to yearn for something a little more realistic. The first effort added so much to the simulation experience, I also developed an interest in cockpits.
During some of my research, I discovered Aimsworth.
I decided to contact them. I’m currently based in Jakarta, Indonesia with my job and they are in Bangkok in Thailand, so they were close by. I had a very prompt and encouraging response from Jurgen Hemmann of Aimsworth, which enclosed some further pictures of their F16 cockpit. The cockpit is true scale and has true scale panels, but some of these are removed to fit in the Quickshot MasterPilots. The photographs with the Quickshot MasterPilots mounted upright just didn’t look quite right. The whole HSI panel and most importantly the ICP were missing from the cockpit in order to squeeze them in.
I sent some suggestions to Jurgen for some modifications and commenced a serious dialog with a very receptive company who wanted to give me the exact product that I wanted. I thought that by laying the Quickshots on their sides, the ICP at least could be retained. They sent me some diagrams of what my suggested changes might look like and informed me that the changes affected only the upper body molding and therefore wouldn’t take very long.
I was impressed with both the receptiveness with which my suggestions were received and the effort put in to giving me a final product tailored to my request. We were in business. I ordered. No charge for the modifications either. Neither the build time nor the delivery via sea freight was very long. Unfortunately, customs being what they are, the clearances into the country took a bit longer than either of the other two phases and at somewhat comparable cost, so bear that in mind if you intend to import a cockpit yourself!
When it finally arrived, the whole lot came in two coffin sized heavy-duty cardboard shipping containers. Despite their customs ordeal, everything was intact, well packed and undamaged, except the instruction booklet, which customs had removed to copy for their clearance documents and forgotten to replace.
Not to worry, construction was simple and straightforward and took about an hour, using tools provided with the cockpit. One warning; construct this thing in place because it’s heavy! You won’t be moving it much when it’s built and you certainly won’t be taking it to your LAN meets! The wooden cockpit will be in reserve for that purpose should I ever need it.
The finishing, sticker placement, setting up the Thrustmaster HOTAS, Rudders, Quickshots and fitting my X Keys 20 ICP panel took a little longer. Holes are all predrilled, but getting the wiring runs correct and tying them down with cable tidy was an enjoyable but slightly time consuming labour. No worse than moving your computer though.
The space behind the ACES II ejection seat is absolutely perfect for the subwoofer on the Cambridge/Creative DDT3500 digital speakers speaker system. Positioned there, the afterburner can be felt as well as heard! There’s room on the HUD molding for the monitor (21”) and front speakers. The HUD and HSI moldings, together with the ejection seat (none functional at present!) are easily and quickly removed to gain full access for running controller and speaker cables.
The finish of this product is excellent. Attention to detail is superb. The seat is adjustable and even for a 6ft, 210lb guy, there’s room to sit comfortably. The seat is actually quite comfortable, but there’s no way to physically get into the cockpit without standing on the seat. I guess a real F16 pilot would be faced with the same dilemma. Once in place, the cockpit fits like the proverbial glove.
The “active” switches in my cockpit are those for the MFD’s (on the Quickshots) and the ICP panel (X Keys 20) and these fit very well and look good. The rest of the cockpit has vinyl stick on switchgear that adds tremendously to the feeling of “being there” and there’s no real reason to go further. BUT, this cockpit absolutely cries out to have additional switchgear and lights and dials added.
I have a feeling that I will be doing just that :)
