As some of you may have noticed I have not been flying lately - this is because my “aircraft is in the hangar”. In fact I have dismantled my desk mounted Spitfire flying controls in order to fit them into the full scale cockpit I am building. The build is coming along OK, as you will see from the photos. To facilitate building and to gave a platform upon which to fit castor wheels, I have given this Spitfire an artificial floor. In the real Spit there is no floor just the skin panels of the underside. In the cockpit section the pilot rests his feet on a transversal bar which is present in my cockpit. The fore & aft rotation axis of the column is below this bar, as on the real aircraft. I have yet to add the rudder bars which will complete the decoration even if they are factice. I did think about making replica rudder pedals & bars then linking them to a standard rudder pedal that I could hide under the pilot seat. But I decided to start simple. The instrument panel has a cut out for the screen, as this cockpit will use VR.
The round cut outs will be for dummy guages which I have yet to make. Starter & booster coil buttons are already installed, but I need to wire them up to the controller. On the port side is a small piece of the old cockpit panel that I used for my desk mounted controls. This is temporary to hold the VHF remote controller in place until I fix skin panels to the frame. I still have some work to do on the pilot seat - I want to add the seat adjustment system, which will be a dummy at first, plus the armour plating in between the seat and the fuselage frame. In the front section in place of the fuel tanks I will install shelves for the screen and the pc.
Beautiful project!! 
I’d ask for one, but I don’t think my wife would agree… 
a real work of love!
Amazing!! 
You could get a screen to display the sim gauges if you wanted to, you could also use the false floor for cable management too, keep it clean and means they don’t get caught under your feet!
I’d love to do something like this. The best bit is that you could have a set up for DCS next to it so you can have the Spitfire for Spit flying and the normal set up for all others.
I met a guy from the french squad Check 6 who displays a P47 cockpit at airshows. He explains how to show instruments on the panel, but it’s a bit fiddly requiring several small screens. I have chosen to keep this simple, with the instruments shown on the screen. The rest of the panel is for fun. For the moment I don’t have problems with cable runs due to the raised cross members. The wiring is already in place for the flying controls, (didn’t you see them in the photos ?). I will progressively add starter & booster buttons, magneto switches, fuel cock, cockpit light dimmers and aux fuel tank cock & jettison lever. The wiring for most of these will be behind the instrument panel. Once I have mastered this “basic” track IR version, I plan to build a second cockpit with a proper fuselage section, with aluminium skin, that will sit on a frame linked to actuators (like my Norwegian customer). This second cockpit will be longer, fully enclosed with access via cockpit door and will use VR, so again i’ll only have dummy gauges for the look and feel.
Will do a proper post of the build on 79vraf once I have delivered current sim kit orders, as I don’t want customers to think I am not working on their gear.
WOW Really Beautiful! Congrats! 
Hi Guys,
Had a bit of time lately to continue building my mobile Spitfire cockpit simulator. Been doing some work on the seat which now has a padded leather backrest and a facsimile parachute seat cushion. I need to add some leather facing on the seat frame edges and to add the mountings that link the seat to the frame just behind.
I have also been working on the instrument panel with the facsimile guages which are only for the look and feel. As you see from the photos I make these from paper printed facings inserted into 3D printed receptacles. Pretty pleased with the result. They are to scale but seem much easier to read than those in sims. Also shown are my home made replica starter & booster buttons which will be wired up to the game controller. I need to get the inside done before skinning as afterwards it will be difficult to work inside the cockpit !.
I have recently made a new website but have kept the name : www.spitfirehistories.com Feel free to share the link with your friends !!
I should should maybe move this to the “models” section, as it feel like I’m building a super scale kit.
Here’s the latest photo of the mobile simpit. As you can see I have added quite a few things like the switches under the trim wheels, dummy magneto switches, dummy cockpit flood lights, working starter & booster buttons, working main fuel cock, dummy ki-gass primer (for the moment) and below the chassis control unit the auxiliary fuel tank cock and jettison handle. Not shown, I have also built a wobble pump and flaps operating lever. The cockpit will be skinned when I have finished the interior work.
In the meantime have been doing a lot of test flying in DCS, having fun on the SoW server and making own missions on the Normandy map. Have just got the Channel map and this will be a good support for a host of different mission scenarios. Have also been using the controls in BoX where we have been flying the P38, Spitfire IX, Tempest etc Ciao à tutti
it’s a real beauty!
and a piece of art and love!
Only the rudders! oh those rudders! 
put up in the list priority a pedal remodel 
this wednesday 51 will fly on BOX in a semi historical mission with 60+ planes…
last week was a blast!!!
if you wanna participate let us know!
that’s a pic of the battle!
Hi Jimmi, I just made a set of two step pedals for Puff who has fitted them to his new pedal base. I will be doing the same for my cockpit when I get a pedal base that I can convert. The two step pedals take 10 hours to print !
What server will you be on in BoX ? What time ?
Italian Wing dedicated server
It is noted that you paid attention to detail.
Thanks @Qwerty. Yes I make up Spitfire parts from copies of original Supermarine Aviation Works drawings, so as to get the details right. The difficulty is to preserve the exterior aspect, dimensions and functionalities while modifying the interior mechanical, pneumatic or electrical systems to work with modern electronics compatible with pc flight sims. In the case of the pedals for Puff it was a simple matter of adapting the base to fit his pedal set, so that they sit at the correct angle. Otherwise the part is identical to the original with the correct number of treads and dimensions. For my own sim cockpit I will probably be making a replica pedal support system, either linked up to a standard commercial pedal unit, or with my own electronics. This is because the pedals on commercially available sets are not as wide apart as they should be for the Spitfire and I want to get the positioning of the controls exactly right so as to get the real feel of what it was like to fly the Spitfire;