My adventure with Microsoft Flight Simulator started in 2000 with the version FS2000, which I received as a gift for Christmas in fulfillment of a letter to Santa Claus (I fall in love with a Concord's 2D panel screenshot on the rear side of the CD box). Although I had been interested in aviation since I was a child, I had never had an opportunity to work on flight simulators. The application enchanted me right away and so it remained. For the first four years I used a joystick made by Logitech - WingMan Force 3D. Unfortunately, perhaps due to regular wear and tear or other reasons, during a supersonic flight a shortcut took place and the joystick terminated its working. When MSFS2004 was released, I bought it immediately together with a yoke and rudder pedals by CH Products. From that time my virtual flying got a completely different dimension.

At that time ideas about virtual flying really began to emerge. First a supplemental keyboard appeared. It was controlling various functions of a simulator, than, an additional monitor was added.  My computer had been assembled and reassembled, catching up with the latest technologies. The two monitors prooved to be an invaluable help also when working on regular documents or some graphics. After some time I came up with an idea to build a unique panel (a box) with various buttons and switches. The buttons and switches were connected to a regular keyboard, which keys were ascribed certain functions in the Flight Simulator. This solution however would not stand the test of time and durability, which made me think of coming up with something different.

This something "different" was to become what later I would call a home cockpit. I planned to build not only a main panel but also an entire cabin. I thought that this would isolate virtual pilots from the surroundings, giving them a realistic feeling of flying. However, it was necessary to take into consideration the important fact that my home cockpit had to remain a functional office desk (at least in the beginning), what gave me a lot of trouble during the process of building. At the end of 2005 I began to work on the first project. The first version was finished in the end of 2007. I thought that this would be enough however that was just a beginning...

Above there are all versions of my home cockpit produced so far. Have fun reading!