The story so far- page 2 -
more modern developments
harrier AV8b

warior 5 joystick A major step forward was the purchase of my first PC. This was in the days of " Windows 3.1" and most games ran in " DOS".
Using a joystck spitter, allowed the connection of two analogue joysticks". Inside the joystick were two sliding potentiometers, and two momentary switches. The axes movement could be spring loaded or not. The main part of the handle detached to leave a “stub”. I left the main joystick as it was and took a second and third one apart. I made a box for the second one with two momentary switches, a slot allowed forward and backward movement. I put a hand grip on the stub - this was my "throttle". I unsoldered the wires from the side to side potentiometer and re-soldered on some long ones. These led to the third “joystick” which was housed in a rudder pedal assembly with the natural springing of the axis supplemented with solid rubber springs - this was my "rudder". The whole "heath robinson" affair worked really well.

 

The pictures below give an idea of the arrangement. The Pc was under the throttle, the keyboard on the right and the joystick on the central housing in front of the monitor. The seat was an old school plastic chair on a box with wheels which slid back and forth. The speakers were in the boxed-off section at the bottom front of the “room”. A painted cardboard panel with a cut-out for the screen surrounded by the “hud supports” and some painted and drawn Instruments helped complete the illusion.

 
front elevation plan view side elevation

 

The system worked fine. My best sims at the time were Microprose’s “F 15 Strike eagle III” & “F 14 fleet defender “,Digital integration’s “apache” and “Hind” , Activision’s “A10– cuba” and , of course , Spectrum Holobyte’s Falcon with its expansion packs; plus two games, which in many ways remain unsurpassed till this day, namely Digital Integration’s “Tornado” and Did’s “ef2000”

 


P.C.’s came and went. 3D graphics arrived and developed Flight sims continued to improve, I spent many happy hours my only real complaint was that,as the trend in simulators was towards more realism, Ididn't have all the "switches to hand" that I really needed. . This brings me to the construction of the present simulator. Eventually I settled for a "Hotas" system, (hands on throttle and stick - so the pilot doesn't need to move their hands off their primary controls), of a Suncom “F 15E Talon” joystick and Suncom “Strike fighter” throttle and Thrust master “Elite” rudder pedals, These are shown in the pictures below.Double click on each of the four images to link to a review article on the product.
suncom talon joystick suncom strike fighter throttle

thustmaster elite rudder pedals

 


A final piece of kit that is shown on the right is the "Quickshot masterpilot” (shown above). A marvellous piece of kit I can’t recommend enough (and still available, but only on Ebay). A Masterpilot gives the ability to program 124 key presses intoeach of five "slots"in the programmable cartridge, giving over 1000 options. Best of all, it looks like it came straight out of a modern cockpit.

One day, when the school was shut by heavy snow and the staff had to remain in the school, To pass the time I started to design and draw plans for an improved simulator which included all the above equipment and was powered by a,far more powerful PC

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 quichshot Masterpilot