My Super Hornet cockpit pics for Ricki

[14th jar]

Hey Rickie Lee,

Here is a post I made at my VNAO squad message board (they were asking for pit pics too).

Firstly here are some shots of a REAL Super Hornet cockpit so you can see what I was aiming for:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/183/389276555_298b3193e6.jpg
http://www.ausairpower.net/000-Super-Bug-f2CckPit.jpg

Now here are some pics of my pit.
It took me a couple of months to build and only cost a couple of hundred dollars at the end. It's still not complete and about every 3 months I get the bug to do another part of it.
Next on the agenda is a hook lever.

I believe in keeping things as simple as possible because I want to be able to get on and just fly without having to tweak software and stuff.
The only functioning parts of the pit are the HOTAS and the gear panel. All the other toggle switches are just for show. 2 of them are hooked up to my cockpit/seat speakers so I can run the sim silently when flying when I get home from night shift.

It's made mostly out of MDF , plywood, steel and aluminum.
The windscreen is from a RAAF F/A-18, it was scratched when I got it but some wet and dry polishing fixed all that. It's still pitted though, from years of high speed flight.
http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab190/14th_jar/pitfwdlh.jpg?t=1274689862

The ejection seat is just wood, it has to subsonic cushions that are hooked into the souncard with the headset and cockpit speakers. Any bass frequencies are amplified to a large vibration. It's pretty cool, you can feel the thunk when the gear comes up.

http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab190/14th_jar/pithigh.jpg?t=1274690265

All HOTAS components are CH USB and all are about 10 years old. They have worked flawlessly over this period except for a small issue with a broken wire in the toe brakes.
A Track IR 5 is mounted on the canopy bow.

http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab190/14th_jar/pitabove.jpg?t=1274690305

Keyboard is a Logitech G110 which is one of the best additions. It's backlit and has 12 "G" key which you can program to macros. For example I have one programmed so that it sends all the keystrokes to get me to the arming selection in FC2. To rearm my F-14 is 2 button presses. Great keyboard.

http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab190/14th_jar/pitlh.jpg?t=1274690576

This is the left forward side of the cockpit. Bottom of the screen is a CH Pro Throttle and above is a functioning gear lever panel.
Buried behind that panel is a Logitech USB gaming controller which is mechanically linked to the Gear lever, the jettison button and the four buttons on the upper right side (eng start, warn tone silence, external lights and canopy close).
So yeah, the gear lever works and the jettison button kicks off my fuel tanks.

http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab190/14th_jar/pitrh.jpg?t=1274690762

Right side has a CH Fighterstick and Logitech 518 mouse. Everything else is cosmetic. Mach/Airspeed indicator is a real one off ebay. I broke it so I could make it read somewhere around Mach 1.1.
I chose to mount the stick on the RH side because the CH ProPedals don't give you much space between your feet/legs.
If CH release the A-10 HOTAS I will mount that stick in the centre and work on modding the pedals somehow.

Hope this helps with your pit building Rickie, happy to give you more details on my one if you need them.

CH ROCKS

[Rickie Lee]

This post is what I've been looking for, for a long time! Thanks a gazillion!!
It gives me all I need except for; could you give me an idea where to get the toggles and switches?
I, like you, want it to look like a real cockpit but do not care if is mostly non functional.
Thanks for taking the time !!
Rickie Lee

[Corsair8X]

That is a very nice setup. Close enough to the real thing, yet looks just generic enough that you can incorporate that into any simulation.