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(@tckellogg)
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Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 10
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Hello. My name is Tom Kellogg and I live in Madison, Georgia. I am a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist and I travel for work. In my spare time I do wood working and work on my favorite past time; building my flight simulator. I flew off aircraft carriers over 40 years ago and then flew for a commuter airline after leaving the US Navy. I have a commercial pilot's license, instrument rating and a multi engine rating. However my flying these days is confined to my basement sitting in my full scale replica of a Boeing 737NG aircraft. My simulator incorporates many actual Boeing 737 parts that I have refurbished. These include the throttle quadrant, control columns and yokes, rudder pedals, circuit breaker panels and cockpit seats. As you can imagine the project has taken me years to build. I am now at a stage where I am ready to actually fly the aircraft using the real controls instead of a computer joystick. I am trying to make my simulator as realistic as possible and I am coming to the forum to seek help with bringing my simulator to life. After a lot of research I felt the Arduino uno was a good place to start so I am here to learn how to program the Arduino. I presently have the simulator torn down but I am in the process of putting it back together. For anyone who is interested I will post some pictures once I get it put back together. I have built three gaming computers and I am comfortable handling electrical components, however I have zero experience doing any computer programming unless you want to include programming I did in college 50 years ago! I am looking forward to working with you, however at my level of programming expertise, I will be receiving a lot more help than I will be giving. Unless you need some advice on building a flight simulator.


   
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Ron
 Ron
(@zander)
Father of a miniature Wookie
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 6662
 

Welcome to the forum, sounds like an interesting and challenging project. If you do a search of the forum you will find a few others doing what you are doing. You might want to start a thread over in the Project Corner forum, sub-forum Help Wanted.

First computer 1959. Retired from my own computer company 2004.
Hardware - Expert in 1401, and 360, fairly knowledge in PC plus numerous MPU's and MCU's
Major Languages - Machine language, 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PL/I and PL1, Pascal, Basic, C plus numerous job control and scripting languages.
Sure you can learn to be a programmer, it will take the same amount of time for me to learn to be a Doctor.


   
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codecage
(@codecage)
Member Admin
Joined: 5 years ago
Posts: 1018
 

@tckellogg

Welcome aboard!  I'm not to far from you in Stn Mtn.

I'm not a pilot, computer industry by trade, but now retired. I did once enjoyed a "ride" in a L1011 simulator at Delta's facilities here in Atlanta.  It came about as I was preparing to install a computer to simulate a computer used on the L1011.  The computer I was installing was many, many times less expensive than the one actually used on the L1011.

As Ron mentioned there are several others that are on the forum that have had some experience building there own flight simulators.  And you will easily find someone eager to help you as you begin your journey into the world of geeks and programmers.  🤣 

SteveG


   
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Inst-Tech
(@inst-tech)
Member
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 554
 

@tckellogg, Welcome to the forum..indeed, you have chosen a great project to start learning how to program C++ language that is the basis of the Arduino family of microprocessors. 

There are many on here that are quite experienced with programming, and many of the other skills you'd need to build a flight simulator..As an aside, I was also US Navy, a FT ( Fire control tech) EWS system, D.A.S.H, and ASROC mostly..Served on the USS Lexington CVT-16 so know something about carrier operations...lol

Have a great day.. and be safe!

LouisR

LouisR


   
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(@tckellogg)
Member
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 10
Topic starter  

Thanks for your replies. My wife and I used to live in Snellville for over 30 years and my wife was born and raised in Stone Mountain. I too enjoyed 4 hours in the Delta 757/767 simulator in Atlanta. I was given Microsoft Flight Simulator software as a gift for my 30th birthday along with the ride. The director of training for Delta bought a car from my brother-in-law and he arranged the 4 hour ride. It was incredible. He actually flew the 757/767 simulator under the Verrazano Narrows (sp) Bridge in New York City. Thanks again for your responses.


   
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