R&D mode has taken considerable time with the last two weeks being almost full time. It takes time to double check everything, scour the Internet, and wait for e-mail replies from various manufacturers.

Starting

Every project must start somewhere and I wanted to use as many OEM components in the build as possible, however, procuring components takes considerable time and I was keen to begin. Therefore, rather than wait until everything was found, a decision was made to begin the project with a number of reproduction items. This at least would get the project started, and as OEM components were obtained these would replace reproductions. It would also enable me to fly the simulator more or less from the beginning of the project.

I researched a number of companies to supply the Main Instrument Panel (MIP) and two companies stood out from the rest, Flight Deck Solutions (FDS) and Fly Engravity.

Flight Deck Solutions was chosen mainly because of support availability in Melbourne Australia, and a more reasonable Australian to Canadian monetary exchange rate. Fly Engravity were a very close second, however the Euro is very strong and freight so expensive from Europe, that using this company became financially prohibitive.

In addition to the Main Instrument Panel, FDS will also supply some of the avionics and the avionics software (Sim Avionics).

ACE Engineering (another Canadian company) will be supplying the reproduction 737 yoke and control column.

I already am in possession of a the Mode Control Panel (MCP) and EFIS, both manufactured by CP Flight in Italy. These will eventually be replaced by a more upmarket MCP and EFIS.

I've been told that delivery of the yoke and MIP will be late September (2011).

Now that the main part of the simulator has been ordered, I can begin to widen my search for additional component..

Presently, I'm talking with an individual who has a OEM Boeing 737 throttle for sale. If negotiations are successful, I hope to purchase this quadrant.

Update

on 2011-12-01 02:22 by FLAPS 2 APPROACH

Its taken some time, since my August order, to receive notification that the MIP I have ordered from Flight Deck Solutions is "almost" ready. I've been told it will ship late this week so it should be in Australia by December 22 (2011). Once the MIP has arrived, it will allow me to begin to develop the simulator.

Update

on 2011-12-07 11:25 by FLAPS 2 APPROACH

At last I've been told that the MIP I ordered from Flight Deck Solutions (FDS) in Canada has been completed. The MIP is currently on the way to Australia via DHL air cargo. It's been a long wait and I hope the product has been worth the lengthy waiting time.

This is the first post on Flaps 2 Approach

This website will document the building of a working Boeing 737 simulator. This is an exciting multifaceted project that will take considerable time to complete. I'll have to learn skills in a number of fields that, and brush up on old skills not used for sometime. I expect I'll be phoning knowledgeable friends and asking LOTS of questions....

Also I am not a website designer or developer, so I have a lot to learn in this area as well.

The website, in addition to documenting the progress of the build, will also act as a conduit to:

Discuss aviation-minding subjected pertinent to the Boeing 737;
Discuss operational and other flight procedures used in the 737 aircraft; and,
Provide reviews on hardware and software pertinent to flight simulation (in particular to the 737 aircraft).

Website Name

I thought carefully about a name for the website. Initially the usual names came to mind - 'My 737 Site' and similar. I wanted something distinctly aviation and something that related to all aircraft. Flaps to approach seemed the logical choice as nearly every aircraft has to set flaps to approach. I used the numeral 2 instead of the word to enable the name to be more easily entered into a browser, and also to differentiate between setting the 'flaps to approach' and the website name.

So let's get the ball rolling.....