Just received my BASIC ATD from TRC (www.therealcockpit.com) and I have to say it's an excellent peice of kit.The gauges are very realistic and move very smoothly.David

If I had the talent to become green with envy, I would be seriously discoloring right now (grin)! Jaap Verduijn.

PeterKBesides the envy how about Cold hard cash...Looks great but wayout of my price league...pete

Same here, right now. But it must be a great thing to have! Some time ago I thought I could, but the illegal offspring at Therealcockpit suddenly upped the price from (if I remember correctly) about 3000 euro to about 5000 euro. That's an increase I do not accept. A company that calculates so badly that they must raise their prices some 70 percent in order to stay out of the red, have lost my trust in their ability to calculate ANYTHING. Imaginary message from Therealcockpit: "I'm sorry, our gauges are 70 percent off, and so are the dimensions of our rigs. We made a little mistake calculating, so you must know that when your altimeter indicates 6000 feet, in reality you're up 10.000 feet" (wide and wicked grin)!Jaap Verduijn.

I was lucky as I ordered mine back in July so got the original price and I agree the price jump was big.However, I have to say that the product is great and the gauges work superbly, very smooth and accurate not like some other attempts at building sim gauges.The support and responsiveness of TRC has been exceptional and I have no complaints whatsoever.David

Greetings David!O yes, I would really like to have one! I can understand that you're happy, I know I would be (envious grin)!But on the other hand: I really believe that for a company to be 70 percent (SEVENTY PERCENT!) off in its calculations, is such a sign of sheer and monumental nincompoopish incompetence, that I wouldn't trust them anymore to calculate even the number of rotations my household coffee grinder makes, let alone let them figure out how to design and calibrate a flight simming outfit. They have shown to be simply unable to handle numbers and figures in a trustworthy and responsible way, and flight simming hardware design is ALL about numbers and figures. So I've decided to stop setting apart money for the eventual acquisition of any Therealcockpit stuff. There's so much else in the area of flight simming hardware that is worth saving up for!Therealcockpit has in one fell swoop completely destroyed my trust, and although they might in the long run win it back again, right now I am definitely not, repeat NOT, interested in buying from them. God only knows what their next calculating mistake of majestic proportions will be. Like: "Sorry mr Verduijn, we made a 70 percent error on the dimensions of our panel. Instead of 30 inches wide it's only 17 inches wide now..." Pity: they're countrymen of mine, and nationalistic chauvinism would dictate that I buy from them (grin)! But I'll be jiggered if I do.Be well!Jaap Verduijn.

Understand your point, but as I said everything they have delivered works as promissed/expected and is the right dimension /calibration (grin),They are a new company and to an extent their prices are dictated by other suppliers. If you have followed their product, it has been a long time in development and so its not suprissing that some of the pricing assumptions have changed due to changing availability in components, I am not trying to defend the large increase, but I think you are being a little harsh on them.Having said that, I have to admit that the current price of the ATD would have prevented me from buying it as well.David

Well... I guess I expect higher standards from, and indeed am somewhat harsher on, my own fellow countrymen than I would be with some third world company in any remote banana republic or coconut kingdom... (grin)!I'm severely disappointed, and now I begin to understand why a famous Dutch company like Fokker went down the drain: we Dutch can't get our figures right...Anyway, apart from their ineptness with the pocket calculator, they simply priced themselves out of my reach, or at least out of my willingness to cough up. Be well!Jaap Verduijn.

I agree.. they priced themselves right out of the biggest market share.Also, they've stopped selling individual components... you have to buy it all or buy nothing at all.What better way to thoroughly kill an entire product line? Granted, I can't afford the whole unit but I CAN afford several gauges and the supporting hardware, but.. they won't break a set, so.. the result is, not only will they not get several hundred from me, they'll not get anything at all!I wonder how many of us would have outfitted our full-size sims with at least a compliment of standby gauges from them? I wanted to and was poised for the purchase until their email (From Sales, no less..) said.. "Sorry.. we can't sell that to you."I understand they want to concentrate all their efforts on the money-making product, so... they'll sell maybe 3...possibly 4?A basic lesson they have failed to learn is that product lines drive sales for other product lines... and they don't understand the demographics of this fine group of hardcore simmers They won't last long.

It's sad. I hope the TRC crowd read this trhead, and reconsider!Jaap Verduijn.

Well, I guess they won't. I had an opportunity to talk to the junior of TRC and he said they were forced to stop selling separately as competitors were buying their products put it in their console systems and sold it at a much higher price. I did never understand why this would hurt TRC even though the conversation was quite long. I mean hey, if competitors buy from me what's the problem. My system becomes a standard that way.Anyway they are not aiming at flight sim enthusiasts at all as a market, as not many would pay the money for such an expensive product anyway. They are aiming on flightschools which buy complete systems.They do not want our money.Alex

"(...) They do not want our money (...)"Well, then they won't get it! Seems we've simply exposed another racket: full of promises at first, empty as a deflated balloon in the end. Sad.Jaap Verduijn.

That's very interesting and I've heard that (misguided) logic before by other companies not familiar with large-scale capitalistic markets. They apparently prefer to be a small player selling only a few units a year rather than becoming a major supplier of simulation components. That's a shame because the companies that they consider to be their competitors are, in fact, their customers and, along with the hard-core flight sim community, the lot would increase TRC's volume thereby reducing their manufacturing costs and increasing their profit margins (not to mention establishing them as the primary source for such equipment to a worldwide marketplace). *sigh*Well, that means there's plenty of room for a competitor to step up to the plate. This kind of hardware doesn't take rocket science to produce. I'd really like to see similar hardware come onto the market even though it's out of my budget. It's just neat stuff.Hey, I just tried going to their site and it's not responding.Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums Moderator[table border=2 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=1][tr][td][table border=0 cellpadding=8 cellspacing=0][tr][td bgcolor=#540000]http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/logo75t.gif[/td][td align="center" bgcolor=#FFFFF6]Bush Flying Unlimited"At home in the wild"Looking for adventure? Come join us! * [link:bfu.avsim.net|Web Site] * [link:www.cafepress.com/bfu,bfu2,bfu3,bfu4|BFU Store] * [link:bfu.avsim.net/join.htm]Join!][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table

>(not to mention establishing them as the primary source for such >equipment to a worldwide marketplace). *sigh*That is exactly what I meant when I said the system would become a standard that way.>This kind of hardware doesn't take rocket science to produce. You are right, but it still takes at least 12-24 month of development and lots of money for tooling. Alex

True, true. I wish TRC the best in their venture. I do hope that there will be another company offering individual instruments, though. They don't even have to be as accurate as TRC's if the price is right.Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums Moderator