Wanted to see if there is interest (picture heavy) Part 1

So I've started working on my third cockpit in has many years. I don't have an electrical engineering degree, not an electrition, not a wood working expert. I just have basic knowledge of electronics, wood, and a great knowledge for aviation. I've built my cockpits with basic skills and on a budget.

So I figured since I'm starting my third one now, why not document the process a bit more this time. Maybe help out the folks starting out a bit. I know it's tough to come here and see some amazing A-10C or Blackshark pits that are perfect replicas and try to learn. So I'm thinking about starting a Youtube channel that will act as a VLog documenting my third cockpit build and answer people's questions.

So my experience so far:

First I watched the videos on the stick on this forum about a zillion times to learn as much as I could. I then set upon building a panel. My first panel was designed to be able to start up the A-10C...it ended up like this:

Not much to look at, but it worked nicely. I then started working on the second panel to make it more useful:

I was now ready to try to build and actual cockpit. I found a website that sold designs made out of PVC piping and decided to give it a shot. I ended up going with this design:

http://www.rogerdodger.net/diyflightsims/pacs.html

Since I wanted to mimic the A-10C cockpit a bit, I modified the design to include a center joystick sort of like this system has:

http://www.rogerdodger.net/diyflightsims/floor_unit_f321.html

You can see the basic frame in this picture:

I also started designing a front panel for it to join the two panels I already built:

The complete cockpit (before the seat installed) looked like this:

Close up of the front with new seat installed:

I even came up with a nice cheap way to make a UFC:

For a first cockpit it was great. I was able to fly with it and made flying more enjoyable. But I knew I wanted to build another one with the panels built into it on the sides and some cooler looking features. So I started thinking about cockpit number 2.......

Wanted to see if there is interest (picture heavy) Part 2

My second cockpit I wanted to try out wood. I found this great design called "The Akers Barnes Cockpit". You can see it at:

http://www.62ndfightingfalcons.asn.au/Resources/AkersBarnesCockpit/CockpitOverview/tabid/73/Default.aspx

The problem is that I'm not that handy with wood working to be able to cut wood to such precision it needed. So I started looking for places around me that did water cutting. I found a place about 40 minutes away that would do it and for 180 dollars they supplied and cut the wood for me. Not a bad deal.

All the pieces sort of snapped into place nicely and the cockpit looked awesome. I build specific panels for the side panels and the main panel. Overall, I love flying the A-10C in this cockpit. The downside is I can't modify it as much to suit my needs better. With my first cockpit I was able to adjust the heights a little better to suit me nicer. Since everything is already cut on this one, wasn't able to do that.

Here's what it looks like finished:

Left side panel:

Right side panel:

I built some smaller panels for other needs as well:

Overall a great cockpit and I love it. The seat is not as comftable as I would like but I'm working on trying to fix that.

But then the Huey came out...and got me thinking about Cockpit number 3....

Now I wasn't planning on building a third cockpit so soon. But we had some work done on our house and the contractor needed to build a frame to hold the balcony up while working on it. He left all the wood behind since we paid for it. So I had all this 2X4 taking up my back porch and nothing to do with it.....then the Huey came out. Perfect excuse to build another pit.

I wanted to make this pit Huey based, but be universal as well. I'm planning on getting the X52 Pro for it. But so far here's the basic design:

Basic structure:

Covered the sides:

Left panel:

Right Panel:

So if people are interested, I'll start video recording my journey and post it on youTube for people to watch. Let me know.