Slowly but surely, my little DA40 sim is taking shape... Some of it is rather crude as is expected from hand-finishing some components, but overall the look is coming along.(I also have a FDS 777 CDU & Display for sale in the Swap Meet forum if anyone is interested) http://www.simengineers.com/sim/progresstodate.jpg

Nice Ray.David

Looks very nice.But the DA40 has a central control stick. What's the yoke like thing on the left? Norbert

>Looks very nice.>But the DA40 has a central control stick. What's the yoke like>thing on the left? The question is: do you care? It works just as fine :) Real realism depends on a lot of other stuff, the question of stick location is one of the last things to worry about :)I think this started as a Cirrus if I remember correctly (hey, it has the Avidyne glass panel too, while the Diamond has a Garmin) - hence the sidestick. But if the mechanism works and is well done, why rip it to pieces just because it happens to be on a slightly different spot?My Baron sim has a control stick and not a yoke. Doesnt bother me :)Ray, nice work!//Tuomas

This project originally started as a Cirrus SR22, which I love. It's a beautiful plane inside and out. The side controls are linked and work quite nicely. I started running into a problem though with constructing the Cirrus interior. If you are familiar with it, there's not a single straight line on the forward panel. My construction techniques fall sadly short of being able to duplicate the Cirrus look. I pursued trying to get real interior trim components, but price was an issue.Enter the DA40. While attending a golf show in Seattle a few months ago, for whatever reason there was a DA40 there on display with the G1000 avionics. After sitting in it and playing with the avionics for awhile I fell in love with it. AND the interior lines were straight and therefore very do-able.Not wanting to throw away all the work I put in building the dual linked side-sticks, I made them a part of the DA40 sim. So, what I have is a mixture of the 2 airplanes. I'm taking the best features from both (I personally like the Avidyne system over the Garmin avionics) and incorporating them in one sim platform. I can understand the purist questions though. Way back in my carefree days I did a frame-up restoration of a '72 Mustang convertible. That mindset is difficult to shake when you're modeling a particular flight deck. I could go on and on about various paint colors, the warning lights, placard verbage, ad-nauseum.. but... I want to fly this thing eventually! :-)

OK, I understand. My comment was not meant as criticism. I am very familiar with the DA40 (shared ownership, but conventional instruments). It is a very nice plane. The cirrus is even nicer I think but twice as expensive. I never saw a cirrus interior, so I was not familiar with the side yoke.In fact I am no purist either. My 777 pedestal contains comm and nav radios because I just want to be able to get my hands on all kinds of knobs, thats what pilots like.So keep on the good work, and keep sending us pics.regardsNorbert

Yeah, I was half serious also - I completely understand some people want to do their sims as close to the originals as possible, and take very similar approach as a scale modeller would take when reproducing a model airplane.But there is a difference in that and "this is not realistic!" -whining one sees quite a lot around here and there in flight sim community, usually pointing at totally irrelevant details. Now, I am not very serious about this either, this is a hobby anyway and supposed to be fun, and whatever gives kicks to who is their own business :)But "realism" is about more important things. A Diamond would still be a "realistic" airplane if one would fit in a Cirrus side-yoke. It's a possible construction that would totally work. It is not "unrealistic" in that sense, which was my point. And it wasnt directed towards anyone particular, just another of my ramblings not to be taken too seriously, but perhaps it gives a bit of insight to someone.. :)So no offense intended or taken. :)//Tuomas

This is all good stuff and I enjoy listening to everyone's take on the subject of purity. Keep it coming!The side controllers are really nice in the DA40 sim, but some niggling issues may cause me to go to the standard joystick setup down the road. The only thing stopping that right now is that they are indeed linked and I like that very much.The problem, is that the linkage binds ever so slightly. Since this was my first attempt ever at building linked controls, the end result is good, but could use a little fine-tuning.I got around the slight binding problem by installing a Bass-Shaker behind the forward panel. At just the right volume it introduces a nice dither effect into the controls and they become very fluid when the engine is running without bouncing everything else out of the panel. I have to admit though that the joystick controls in the real DA40 are tempting...

VERY nice work. Where did you get the Garmin 1000 Software-Instrument from? I was looking around, but couldn't find it in any forum or flightsim library up to now.Please tell a bit more what components, interfaces and controls you are using. I see you also use GoFlight for NAV/COM.BTW, Project-Magenta is planning a GARMIN 1000 product, but is not released up to now.