About Me
Why did I Build a Full-Scale B-737 Simulator in my Living Room?
Passion For Flying
Flying has always been my passion. I took flying lessons when I was in high school and passed my private pilot check ride on my 17th birthday.
As soon as I could afford it, I bought my first airplane – a 1969 Cessna 172. Even though the airplane was limited in range due to both fuel capacity and a low cruising speed, I flew it across the United States, taking trips that led me from the West coast to the East coast. And that was without an autopilot! GPS did not exist at that time, so navigation was solely by dead reckoning, pilotage, and VOR stations.
Medicine versus Aviation
When I started college, I had two potential career paths: one in aviation and a second in medicine. As the poem by Robert Frost eloquently describes, I reached the fork in the road where I had to decide. I chose to go to medical school.
Over the next several decades, I continued flying as a general aviation pilot. I obtained my instrument rating, commercial, flight instructor, multi-engine, and finally airline transport pilot certificate. On many occasions I seriously considered changing careers to aviation to fulfill my desire to fly professionally.
Boeing 737 Type Rating
A few years ago, I came close once again to changing careers to aviation. After deciding that it was probably too late in life to follow this dream, I did the next best thing and signed up for a Boeing 737 type rating course. At least I could experience professional flight training for two weeks.
The course required about six weeks of serious home study over aircraft systems and procedures. Finally, I flew out to Florida and spent the next two weeks in both classroom training and in a Level D B-737NG simulator. The flight deck, external visuals, motion, vibration, sound … all made it hard to determine if the experience was in a real aircraft versus a simulator. It was an amazing experience. After 16 hours of pilot flying, 16 hours of pilot monitoring, I took the two hour FAA check-ride in the simulator. A B-737 type rating on my ATP certificate became a reality.
Then What?
Next order: fly the real thing. I went to the airport and asked where I could rent a Boeing 737. Surprisingly, I could not find one for rent. Just kidding! I couldn’t have even afforded the fuel alone for an hour of flight time.
At home, I had a desktop flight simulator using Prepar3D with the PMDG 737NGX aircraft. This surprisingly modeled the aerodynamics and aircraft systems accurately. I had used it to prepare for my type rating course. However, it had serious limitations due to sharing the single computer display for both external visuals, as well as cockpit instrumentation. Clicking switches, levers, and rotary knobs with a mouse became tedious and unrealistic.
I explored renting Level D simulator time to maintain my type rating skills. This was not practical because of the cost and travel required to get to a Level D simulator. I decided it was time to build a limited but realistic B-737 cockpit simulator. This turned out to be a journey down a rabbit hole. Over the next two years, the initially modest endeavor evolved into a full size 1:1 scale B-737 flight simulator.
