Officially on September 29, 2003, construction began on the newest and most advanced version of our flight simulator yet. We are transitioning from the Boeing 767-400 flight deck to the 767-300 flight deck.

Our reasons and explanation are:

The 767-400 version, as currently modeled in our simulator, is a much newer version of the 767 and is considered a "full glass cockpit" similar to the 777. You might ask then, "Why the step back in time?" A understandable question considering the work we have put into this to date. Our reasons are that when we began this endeavor back in 1997, Dave and I favored the 757 / 767-300 cockpit look over all others. The 757 / 767-300 share an almost identical flight deck. And in fact our earlier model reflected that. However, in November of 1999, we decided to upgrade the simulator to the newer 767-400 for one reason. Enrico Shiratti of Project Magenta was writing software that revolutionized home cockpit construction. The software he was writing featured Boeing's newest "full glass cockpit" look. The software is so realistic that some airlines have chosen to implement it into their training curriculums. At the time, we could not resist as the software provided us incredible realism to include a working FMS, AFDS, MCP, PFD and ND. Therefore we spent several months making large changes and went from a 1-personal computer simulator, to a sophisticated network encompassing 8 personal computers.

In September of this year, I had the pleasure to meet Enrico, who lives in Italy, at a flight convention in Reading, Pennsylvania. Enrico and I had been discussing via email for some time the possibilities of him developing a version of the software to model the 757 / 767-300. In fact, I was in good company as I met another gentlemen, J.R. Canales, who also was pushing Enrico to develop this version. Interestingly enough, J.R. Canales is a flight instructor for Delta Airlines at their training facility in Atlanta. The short end of a long story is that Enrico has agreed to model the version. Therefore, we immediately began construction and remodeling on our current simulator to facilitate this change. A change that will permit Dave and I to return to the model we so dearly love, the 757 / 767-300 while still employing the awesome realism that Project Magenta brings to the simulator environment. The following links will guide you through photographs that capture what we have coined "The TRANSITION of a SIMULATOR."