Man flies 737 from his garage | Hacker News Reader

Man flies 737 from his garage

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147 pointsargumentum32 comments

I'm waiting for homeland security to visit him and ask him what the hell he thinks he is doing building a terrorist training device in secret.

Jokes aside that's a pretty sweet setup, I'd like to see one for driving a car or flying a helicopter.

So he's not remote controlling a 737, he's built a flight simulator in his garage. HN title makes the article a letdown.

Instead of remote controlling a 737 with, and not much more is needed theoretically client-side, a PC, he rebuilt the entire flight deck of one.

I hardly see this as a letdown.

You could remote control a 737 with an iPad. This is just to make a flight simulator more engaging.

Yeah, they went link-bait on this one.

My favourite hackers are the ones who do it for fun. I don't imagine he has any aspirations of being acquired by Google. He does it because he loves it.

I love these stories of nerds who take their hobbies to the next level. Reminds me of the guy who built a Lamborghini in his basement: http://www.geekologie.com/2008/10/man-builds-lamborghini-cou...

There's also this incredible miniature airport someone built: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8bZbC-xfMg

The miniature airport is in Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg: http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com World's largest model railway.

That layout never fails to impress me. So detailed it has miniature traffic accidents, miniature bank robberies, and one time I think I saw a miniature terrorist incident.

Would anyone happen to know the requirements for simulators built for flight training use? You need quite a few hours on the simulator before you can really get to work on your pilot's license, renting the thing out during work hours to certified flight instructors/schools during the day would be a hell of a side business.

If you need something FAA certified, it's going to cost you a whole lot more than a non-certified one. X-Plane flight sim is available with certification for flight instruction use. It costs more than the desktop version.

For a private pilot's licence you're not required to have any sim time, but it's a very good idea anyway. But if you just want to practice your upcoming flying lesson with an instructor in a real airplane, pretty much any modern flight simulator is good enough for basic training. Off the shelf gaming controllers are good enough. You don't need a certified sim for that.

For commercial pilots flying passenger jets, there are big simulators that are different beasts.

Delta Air Lines sells time in their passenger jet simulators, but the pricing is undoubtedly in the "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" range: https://www.delta.com/business_programs_services/training/pi...

The full motion simulators they have a picture of are intense; they feel like the real thing in motion, in controls (weighted and worn like the real thing), and in sound. I was lucky enough to try one for a C-130 last year, and I'm still a bit blown away by it.

Last I remember, the FAA doesn't certify software. A certified simulator is a hardware installation. There's really nothing specific required of the software; early "certified" simulators were just instrument gauges and a trivially simple flight model. There are some FlightGear-based training devices too.

It may be that you need a certification for each hardware installation separately. However, there are software requirements for FAA certification. This is from X-Plane Professional description: "It provides hardware and frame-rate checks required for FAA certification of the simulator".

The video was a letdown - all that talking and not one detail about how it was put together (other than the part about it being a boeing nose cone, but that was obvious).

I agree. I looked for other articles, hopefully there will be some better ones in the future.

Here's the most detail he has: http://www.737simguy.com/OldSite/tools.htm

He posted 2 weeks ago that he's working on a new site: http://www.737simguy.com/

Considering the praise he heaps on the EPIC input controller, the website for that product (http://www.mindspring.com/~rrelect/epic/info/teaser.shtml) is, dare I say it, almost epically underwhelming. :| I tried to find out a) what it looks like and b) how much it costs, just out of general interest, and failed on both.

With 300+ buttons, I don't think it's a controller like your thinking of. So much as an interface you can attach your own buttons to.

Click on tools on his old website and then there are two links in the first paragraph that answer all of your questions.

I was really hoping he'd detail what exactly he'd put together on the technical side: what was bought off the shelf, what did he create himself etc... Hopefully more details will show up online. It's a very impressive project

Sweden's IDG.se had an article recently on some enthusiasts building a 737 simulator. Article in Swedish, Google Translate might be helpful: http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.441624/sa-bygger-du-din-egen-flyg...

The web site of the society who built it: http://www.swesim.se/

The 737 isn't the only simulator they've got, among others they have a Viggen simulator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_37_Viggen).

(edit: formatting)

I wonder after 3 years of work on something like this how do you protect and/or insure it from fire or mischief as only one example? Security wise seems to be an issue making something like this so public (although I can certainly understand why you would want to show what you have built.)

He uses Flight Simulator 2002 via networked machines for each screen!... I'm surprised he couldn't get one rig to run all the screens now. Really impressive setup.

He might need proprietary software to power his cockpit, and that might not be available for newer versions of Flight Simulator (w/ multi screen support).

So is he using WideFS?

How did you find out the details of the software he's using?

How much did he pay (time and cost)?

You can rent and buy these sort if simulators. Prices range from a few grand per month to millions.

Obviously you miss out on the build process.

The video says he spent 3 years building it, nothing about the money.

I was gonna say, is this about John Travolta?

This guy = Hacker all of fame.

todo: pay him a visit.

This guy is no 501 programmer!!!

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