David Marsden said that his flight simulator is installed in his wife’s sewing room and therefore could not build a dedicated enclosure.   Recently he solved the problem by putting a piece of cloth onto some frames, which he could put up a temporary cockpit space in about 2 minutes and take it down just as quickly.

David said the idea was got from Ben Weaver in Cockpits section who had done the same.  Followings are the pictures of his “interpretation”, which he thought might be of help to anyone who also has limited space for their cockpit build.

Builder: David Marsden
Location: Sheffield, UK
ICAO: EGCN, Doncaster Sheffield Airport

Project Notes:
My other hobby is carpentry.  I built the cabinet from plain pine from the local timber merchant.  It cost less than £50.

The wood for the frames was very cheap, too.  The Uprights are 3″ by 2″ constructional timber.  Cost less than £10.

The slot in side pieces are two broom handles (£2.99 per broom, cheaper than buying dowels).   The cross pieces are one 1.5″ x 1.5″ length sliced into four on the bandsaw.   The holes for the broom handles need to be drilled at 10 degrees above the horizontal.

The cloth is the cheapest duvet set in black I could find.  The whole canopy can be done for about £40.

All the equipment is Saitek.   I’ve got Throttle, FPD, HSI then Sat Nav and finally Altimeter (the only actual Saitek one).  I changed the buttons on the PFD fip so that I can do the ATC replies on it.

The cockpit is not as elaborate as some of the others, but I quite like flying Boeing 737’s in it.

I get a lot of ideas from looking at other peoples cockpit pictures.