Calgary man builds $25K flight simulator in his basement

[Woxof38]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/c ... -1.3926927

Governali's simulator is connected to the air traffic control systems of major airports in real time, he says.

"Let's say I tune it to Montreal. If it's raining or snowing right now in Montreal, my simulator will rain and snow, same temperature, same winds."

Governali says while his current simulator is pretty much finished, aside from minor tweaks, his foray into flight simulators is a journey, not a destination.

[fish4life]

I've never understood when people do this instead of just flying a real airplane.

[AuxBatOn]

Some people just like to build things and the fun is more into building the simulator than flying it.

[complexintentions]

I've never understood when people do this instead of just flying a real airplane.

I've never understood when people do this instead of just congratulating someone for an impressive achievement doing something they obviously enjoy.

[AirFrame]

^ ^ ^ This.

[cncpc]

^ ^ ^ This.

^^
^^

[cncpc]

That is a great accomplishment.

[digits_]

I'm impressed he could do it so cheaply. Looked into this thing with some friends a few years ago. To reach a good level of sim, we were estimating around 40-50k.

Very nicely done!

[readyou5by5]

I'm impressed he could do it so cheaply. Looked into this thing with some friends a few years ago. To reach a good level of sim, we were estimating around 40-50k.

With roughly $25,000

That stuff adds up and I would guess the $25k is a really rough number. Sometimes with hobbies like this it's best not to think of the cost though

Impressive indeed though, and a bargain compared to commercially available sims

[co-joe]

Now all he has to do is offer type rating trainings on it, and he'll have it paid for in a week. looks A340-ish.

[JohnnyHotRocks]

Someone will investigate him soon enough as some sort of terrorist plotter!

[TeePeeCreeper]

Someone will investigate him soon enough as some sort of terrorist plotter!

Isn't that what the media and the Malaysian government did in the days after MH370? That poor sod only had a couple of screens and Microsoft flight sim too!

[JohnnyHotRocks]

Someone will investigate him soon enough as some sort of terrorist plotter!

Isn't that what the media and the Malaysian government did in the days after MH370? That poor sod only had a couple of screens and Microsoft flight sim too!

Exactly

[John Desramaux]

I helped a friend build a B727 sim in his basement back in the early 70's. Boeing sent us photocopies of the panels and we traced them out of black bristol board with a white pencil. Built out of plywood and 2X4's and pretty nifty throttle quadrant the rest was left up to the imagination. My friend did most of the work I was just a "technical advisor"

[Kejidog]

Chair flying before iPads!

[maturepilot83]

Listen to the way that mean speaks. He's clearly passionate about aviation. I commend this individual for putting in hours to have some down time after work. It appears to be therapeutic for him after a long stressful day on the job. I hope he is able to take flying lessons one day and at least earn himself a PPL ticket.

[Beefitarian]

The best part of this video of his build might be the audio of pilots and ATC arguing mixed in with the soothing violin music.