http://www.aviationmegastore.com/info/flight_simulator_vliegen.php
All you need for a 737NG cockpit ...
Nice, this is what I want, but it looks like the resistance on the yokes is too little. So I will wait until they put more resistance on them. I just cannot imagine real ones acts like them, they turn too easy. Any 737 pilots here?
Good to know about simulator yokes.
I have no flight time in a real 737, but I "flew" several Boeing 737NG Level D Full Flight Simulators. The flight controls on the 737, like any other large aircraft, are heavily assisted. The feedback in the flight controls are different from what it is in an aircraft with unpowered flight controls.
But after a while you get used to "that feel".
In all the fly-by-wire Airbus aircraft, the pilots control the aircraft with joysticks, and these joysticks are only spring loaded, there is no other feedback.
Everybody like the motion systems on a simulator, but the truth is that the motion serve no real purpose (except for turbulence and hard landing); you fly an aircraft by looking outside, or the instruments. When flying excursively on instruments, you have to totally ignore the cues that are provided by the acceleration forces. On a Level D Full Flight Simulator, the motion system is calibrated and has to be qualified to react just like if it was the real thing... but it never really feel like the reality.
When I as working on my instrument rating, my home flight simulator consisted of a CH Product Yoke and Rudder pedals, and a couple of boxes from GoFlight. It was a while ago, but one box allowed me to adjust the heading bug, OBS on VOR, etc, and the other box allowed me to tune the frequencies on the radios. I could fly without ever touching the keyboard.
I only had a 17" computer screen, and the feeling of the CH yoke was not that great, but after a while I got used to its springy feeling. Most of the time you only have to move the yoke by very small amount.
Saitek seems to be making a very nice yoke.
I think the best would be to also have an additional screen to be used as the "instructor station" (like in a real flight simulator), there are softwares that do just that. The "instructor station" is then used to re-position the aircraft, change the weather, insert failure etc.
Also, for a home flight simulator, I think it makes more sense to have some kind of a generic type of simulator, where you can simulate different types of aircraft.
I suspect that a lot of builder of home flight simulator are more interested in the building than in the flying.