DCS Cockpit Sim

[Bones]

Made a visit to the Extreme Flight Simulations center up north of Chicago. They had a full cockpit sim modeled after the F/A-18C, but had it tied in with VR to DCS F:16C (Only because they had to switch out the Hornet for some reason).

They also had a full cockpit sim of the Airbus 340.

Here I am doing the Vegas Mach Run in VR in the F-16C:

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v6,
boNes

[PanzerMeyer]

Looks like you had an awesome time!!

[Xpendable]

Thanks for sharing. That's a bizarre cockpit! It's part F-18 and part F-16. No F-18 has a side-stick as far as I know, and obviously the F-16 does have a side stick. I'm not super impressed with what they've got going on there. There are far better home-grown simpits out there. This seems like it was half-cheek (as opposed to full-cheek).

[Bones]

Thanks for sharing. That's a bizarre cockpit! It's part F-18 and part F-16. No F-18 has a side-stick as far as I know, and obviously the F-16 does have a side stick. I'm not super impressed with what they've got going on there. There are far better home-grown simpits out there. This seems like it was half-cheek (as opposed to full-cheek).

Yeah, I noticed that. It looked as if the joystick detached and could go in the mount between your feet though. The interior was 90% F/A-18C. Mostly correct. I wish I could have seen it turned on. They said all the MFDs and buttons were functional however with the VR on, newbies would, for instance, hit the fuel dump switch when reaching for the throttle. Then they'd be wondering why they were out of fuel only after a few minutes (and probably have a big torch shooting out from their 6:00!). Also, if they hit an MFD button, and it changed accordingly or the mode changed or the HUD changed as a result of it, then obviously the layman would not know what to do.

It would be cool if they had a session for "advanced" people who CAN do things like flip those switches and such. Or, since they had a second cockpit being set up next to it, do an MP session or special event. That cockpit was being fitted with a WinWing stick. That was the other thing I had to get used to in their cockpit--the HOTAS had some action to it that I was not used to, since all m muscle memory is on my personal HOTAS. BUt anyway, an MP session would be cool. The flight sim center near Los Angeles, "Fightertown" used to do those back in the day. I got to fly a 2 DOF F-14 Tomcat in a tournament there, with a human RIO in the back even!

So this Extreme Flight Simulations place is obviously geared toward the "tourist", but it's fun if you approach it in an arcade sort of way. Their Boeing 737 MAX cockpit sim is probably more realistic and poignant. Xpen, it is up in Gurnee,not far from Great America...I could see the Fright Fest flag flying from the place. I got the 1 hour session via Groupon for $40 or so. After getting that, i've been getting spammed by Groupon to sign up for flight sessions, sometimes 5 times a day. Very annoying.

Maybe you can lease them your Harrier cockpit when you are done! There's your cash cow!

v6,
boNes