Howdy, for the last few months I've had my excellent Saitek ProFlight Switch Panel for my FS experience but always wanted a lit-tle more realism than the out-of-the-box setup afforded. Yeah, I know, you just can't make some guys happy enough! Well, I'm a different variety: instead of moaning about it, I do something about it. So when I thought to myself last weekend about how I could make the switch panel better, I began to look at the thing...The panel, as it comes, is laid out well: most all controls you expect to the left of the yoke are on the left side of the panel, and vice-versa, the only difference being the cowl flaps switch is next to the ignition switch. O well...so I made an imaginary line on the panel as to how I wanted the cut, and this is what I got:

Right now, some Saitek folk are either writhing in anxiety or popping their knuckles in anticipation for my throat. Disclaimer: I know my warranty is now void! I accept it! Okay...that's in the open. :( Notes: Before I cut the panel, I snipped the wires between halves, leaving plenty on either side. They're bundled well and leave no doubt as to what goes where. There's two bare wires bridging the two rows of rockers: snip the wire that prevents the halves from being fuly separated, snip clean away. There's plenty of solder on the switch terminals to solder the new bridging wires onto after you tin them. Also, the horizontal panel cut should be low so 2 screw bosses remain with the left part of the panel...do this, the panel needs that support.Okay, onto the bridging wire: the wire donor for the project was an old '90s-era printer cable, and I snipped off both ends, carefully slit the sheath, unwrapped the bundle and found a mother lode of fine multi-strand wire in all the colours of the rainbow! So, I isolated the colours to match with the colours used in the Switch Panel and cut them into 2-foot lengths (2 black for the switch common grounds, 2 white, 2 yellow, 2 grey, purple, green and blue), stripped all wire ends (1/16 inch off each end, the soldering iron will shrink them back more), ran to Radio Shack and bought:* Shrink-tube multi-pack (P/N 278-1610), it has the 1/16 inch shrink tubing in 4 colours (white, red, blue and clear), very vital!* .015" solder (P/N 640-0035), very fine, 1-oz. spool* Telephone wire clips (P/N 278-1667). plastic w/foam tape adhesive, to run the wire bundle under the yoke$13 total, including "The Gargolye's" (Governor Gregoire's) cut (sales tax). :( I tinned all ends and snipped the shrink tubing, 8 cuts per length (You'll end up using 3 lengths up) and slid them onto the wires. Then I soldered bridging wires, colour for colour, until done, slid the shrink tubing in place and heated them until the joints were sealed. Then I connected the Switch Panel's USB plug to the yoke and ran the Saitek panel test page to check all lights, knobs and switches to make sure everything worked right: it did. Perfect! Don't neglect to do this. B) Mounting: I used 4 2-inch L-brackets (2 per side) from the local TrueValue store with 8 very short pan-head screws, dry-fittting it all and making very careful note of where those screw tips would end up inside the panel. I bent the L-brackets out an additional 6 degrees to slant the panels, mounted them to the switch panels and then mounted it all under my desk. Three foam-taped cable clips were put on the bottom of my yoke, the cable inserted to clean it all up, and voila! :(

I'll eventually get some black polystyrene plastic and model glue to fill in the gaps and clean it up, but for now: function over form.The 3 inches of panel that were moved to the left brought the right part closer over so the throttle quadrant could be brought in closer, allowing my forearm to be more longitudinal and square, instead of reaching so far to the side. It's much more comfortable now. And the whole panel now has a more authentic appearance and tactile feel. All in all, was it worth the effort and voiding the warranty? IMHO, yes...but I must issue a word of caution: if you are not familiar with these kind of modifications or working with very small electronics, don't do it. I'm a tinkerer, I can hack, cut, snip, fix, troubleshoot, etc., and I have lots of losses behind me that lent to my present expertise. If you choose to do this, make sure this is what you really want to do, and if the risks are worth the benefit in proprortion to your own experience.Anyway, that's it. I'm goin' flying! B)

Just when you thought it couldn't get any more fun or scary...I just ordered a Cessna 172H yoke. Price? Free! It pays to know folkage in the aircraft recovery business who have a few things they wanna let go of. This is the yoke with the switch cutouts on the yoke tips, a'la the Saitek yoke. The Saitek's switches will be slimmed up a bit and placed in situ on the yoke's switch spots.The benefits? The Cessna yoke is solid, and as good as the Saitek yoke is in general, sometimes its halves 'creak' when I'm using it. Plus, the 172 yoke handles are a bit thinner and thus easier to grasp, they're canted a bit inward for a better ergonomic feel and the pivot point is a bit higher up and has a better L-to-R rotational feel...the grab-center axis is in line with the yoke's rotational axis, like a steering wheel. I'm looking forward to this, I'll keep ya updated!

Great idea. Rhydianwww.cessnasim.blogspot.com

I would think anything that happens here is watched for new improvements to products out there. I wouldn't worry bout Saitek getting mad they may wonder instead 'why didn't we think of that'. They have I think taken the lead away from CH in many ways. Being more innovative and meeting the demand out there for more realistic stuff at a better price point even so CH is watching them I'm sure.Necessity is the mother of invention and Saitek's line of flight sim stuff is directly related to us folks building the stuff first and showing there is a demand for such things. I'm a big fan of there stuff too. Being on a budget though has me temporarily out of the market for such cool stuff but I should be back in short order.