Next Level Racing Boeing Military simulator seat

[MA_Goblin]

Hi everyone,

Just want to give my view on my new simulator seat that I bought to replace my home built "wooden wonder" after many years of use.

I was impressed with the images and initial reviews of the NLR Boeing military edition that I could find and decided to order one.
Since I live in Sweden both initial price and shipping cost cannot be called cheap in any way however I was betting on the quality matching cost.

I will not make a long assembly review since there is those to be found on YouTube.
The package is LARGE and HEAVY though so it's definitely a two man job to haul it to where the build will take place.

The manual is excellent, the quality and finish equally great so I was not disappointed at all with this.
Assembly takes about 4 hours and then be prepared to fiddle for a couple of days in order to find the best location for Your accessories.
It is NOT made for changing mounting places very often, measure twice mount once! That is my recommendation

The assembled seat is sturdy, comfortable (I'm 175 cm above sea level) and the adjustment possibilities are great, at least for my accessories.

Two thing that is slightly negative are:
In order to get the VPC CM2 base and handle with a 200mm extension to fit I had to fabricate an adapter and drill some holes in the one that came with the seat to mount it. It works great but requires some tools and time.
In order to mount the MFG pedals I had to drill holes in the pedal-plate since the mounting holes existing did not fit.

All in all for me two minor inconveniences.

I highly recommend this seat, both for quality, adjustment possibilities and comfort.
https://nextlevelracing.com/products/boeing-combat-flight-simulator/

[Scott-S6]

I have a very similar seat from NLR in my cockpit and found the seat base to be too close to flat, resulting in it becoming uncomfortable after a couple of hours. A wooden wedge between the seat pan and cushions made a big difference.

I later fitted a Martin Baker seat box which is aggressively contoured and now it's excellent.

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by Scott-S6

[No1sonuk]

Did you send feedback to NLR about the mods you needed to do?

MFG pedals are a common thing. I'm surprised the plate wasn't compatible. 

[MA_Goblin]

Just now, No1sonuk said:

Did you send feedback to NLR about the mods you needed to do?

MFG pedals are a common thing. I'm surprised the plate wasn't compatible. 

I will do so

[corbu1]

The NLR seat looks very nice and I‘d be interested in it.

Biggest problem I see as well is the uncomfortable center mount.

I‘d have to integrate a stick with a 400mm extension for use as helocyclic. But this seems not easy to assemble to the seat base.

[jnr4817]

Do they sell just the actual seat part. I’ve got my own sim rig. I don’t wanna pay monster tech money. It be nice if they sold just the seat at a competitive price. 

[_Hoss]

9 hours ago, Scott-S6 said:

I have a very similar seat from NLR in my cockpit and found the seat base to be too close to flat, resulting in it becoming uncomfortable after a couple of hours. A wooden wedge between the seat pan and cushions made a big difference.

I later fitted a Martin Baker seat box which is aggressively contoured and now it's excellent.

 

 

 

 

Screen shots?

[Scott-S6]

13 hours ago, _Hoss said:

Screen shots?

This is the seat as it is now, I can't find any pics of the intermediate state where I'd shortened the pan and put a wooden contour between the pan and cushions. (the odd texture on the cushion is from the hexagonal gel filler - very comfy)

Edited April 2, 2023 by Scott-S6

[Six Gun]

I have the same NLR military edition seat and love it!

[aleader]

I'm looking at this but the very narrow range of options for the pedals and stick mount turn me off.  That, and the very uncomfortable looking seat.  When I spend $1,100 CAD on something, I had better not have to 'drill holes' and 'fabricate' anything to make things work.  I have Crosswind pedals and a VKB Gladiator NXT stick, but it doesn't look as though either will work with this out of the box.  What were they thinking designing it like this?  They just assumed that everyone has a TM Warthog and/or plays nothing but MSFS? 

 

EDIT: I watched a video and see that there is a 'plate' for a right-hand joystick mount where the mouse sits, and Crosswind is mentioned as supported hardware, so I assume my pedals would have mounting holes.  

Question:  does this come with a mouse pad?  I see a 'thin' one in the video beside where the joystick would mount.  Does it also come with a lumbar support?  Several Amazon reviews said it did not come with these, yet it says they are included on the Next Level site.

Edited May 20, 2023 by aleader

[_Hoss]

Yeah, I wish life were that easy, one size fits all for every application. That would be awesome...... yep.....

Cheers

[aleader]

4 hours ago, _Hoss said:

Yeah, I wish life were that easy, one size fits all for every application. That would be awesome...... yep.....

Cheers

It looks pretty close actually after watching a few more review videos.  I see that it does come with a custom KB and mouse pad, and the lumbar support.  I also see that I would be able to attach my racing wheel and pedals with the front support tray, so it's now on my list for purchase in the fall when I get back inside the house for our extremely cold winters.  This is the first thing I've seen that can replace my very robust home-built rolling wood/mdf 'cockpit' for a reasonable price and footprint.

 I'd say we can all probably thank MSFS (that I don't own) for the decent hardware that's starting to appear for flight sims (i.e. this and the HF8 seat pad).

The only thing that nobody has addressed is the ability to mount a collective stick on the side, although somebody will figure it out soon enough and post a video I'm sure.

Also, my bad, I missed that the OP has the Crosswind pedals installed...

Edited May 21, 2023 by aleader

[MustangSally]

Here's my completed Simpit

 

[Ala12Rv-Tundra]

On 6/8/2023 at 2:05 AM, MustangSally said:

Here's my completed Simpit

 

nicely done sir.
how did you modify WW takeoff panel knobs to gray?
does the collective arm interfere when using the throttle?

[MustangSally]

1 hour ago, Ala12Rv-Tundra said:

nicely done sir.
how did you modify WW takeoff panel knobs to gray?
does the collective arm interfere when using the throttle?

I've since re-positioned it along with lowering the center stick mount. The knobs are 3d printed

null

[_Hoss]

Glad I didn't buy the first version.

Edited June 9, 2023 by _Hoss

[MustangSally]

5 hours ago, _Hoss said:

Glad I didn't buy the first version.

 

Nothing wrong withe mine....in fact it works perfectly and I think looks so much better. Oh and btw it's a totally different rig and not a new version!!

Edited June 10, 2023 by MustangSally

[Ala12Rv-Tundra]

On 6/10/2023 at 7:28 AM, MustangSally said:

Nothing wrong withe mine....in fact it works perfectly and I think looks so much better. Oh and btw it's a totally different rig and not a new version!!

 

well the fact that a company like that keeps releasing flight sim products is very positive for us customers and I am certain will attract more people to the flight sim community, excellent news

[MustangSally]

6 hours ago, Ala12Rv-Tundra said:

well the fact that a company like that keeps releasing flight sim products is very positive for us customers and I am certain will attract more people to the flight sim community, excellent news

It's also great that they are an Australian company that are only a short distance down the road from me.

[Scott-S6]

On 6/10/2023 at 6:28 AM, MustangSally said:

Nothing wrong withe mine....in fact it works perfectly and I think looks so much better. Oh and btw it's a totally different rig and not a new version!!

 

Very different price point as well. ~50% more than the boeing rig and triple the price of the F-GT (in the UK).

Options are good things.

[JG27_Arklight]

On 6/12/2023 at 1:38 AM, Scott-S6 said:

Very different price point as well. ~50% more than the boeing rig and triple the price of the F-GT (in the UK).

Options are good things.

The new NLR setup is actually broken down into 2 pieces that don't need to be purchased together. If you want to use your desk or don't need the flight stand than you don't need to purchase it. The new pit is a better option for DCS users who want a center mounted stick with an extension since the center mount on the new offering has more height/etc.. options. That was a big downside to the original NLR pit and one of the main "issues" pointed out in feedback. So, is it a new version? Not really...but it is improved in some ways over what was released before. For centrally mounted stick users who prefer to use a 200mm extension I would 100% buy this over the other NLR simpit (unless you just want to fabricate something). Both the new and less-new NLR pits are great options though. Additionally, you can now purchase the seat by itself if you already have a simpit and just want the seat alone.

Having said all that, if somebody is in the market for a Simpit that won't break the bank and has expandability, I'd check out the offering from Simfab. It's cheap, gets the job done, has quite a few expandability options and leaves a smaller footprint.

Btw, does anybody know the distance between the mounting rails on their Boeing seat in cm or MM (preferably MM)? Thinking about getting one for my Monstertech pit.

Edited June 20, 2023 by JG27_Arklight

[Customizer171]

On 6/20/2023 at 8:02 AM, JG27_Arklight said:

 does anybody know the distance between the mounting rails on their Boeing seat in cm or MM (preferably MM)? Thinking about getting one for my Monstertech pit.

 

Distance between the mounting rails are 355 mm, center to center.

[JG27_Arklight]

On 6/29/2023 at 1:58 PM, Customizer171 said:

Distance between the mounting rails are 355 mm, center to center.

Thanks!

[Callsign.Vega]

Yikes the seats on these rigs seem like really cheap foam Chinese gamer seats from Alibaba. I think when I built my setup I will use a high quality automotive seat. 

[Scott-S6]

On 7/8/2023 at 4:18 AM, Callsign.Vega said:

Yikes the seats on these rigs seem like really cheap foam Chinese gamer seats from Alibaba. I think when I built my setup I will use a high quality automotive seat. 

Having pulled apart the cushions to try and improve them I can say it's not the foam that is the problem. It is a decent dense foam, not the terrible stuff that squashes flat with no effort. There are other problems with the design of the seat...