Ok, now I'm getting really excited! The two coolest add-ons for Flight Simulator have made my simulatin experience almost real. TrackIR3 - Most of you know what it is. http://www.naturalpoint.com. Allows me to look around in full 3d mode by turning my head. Great! Now I can really tackle flying VFR with sectional charts and looking for those reference points! Nice downwinds and base legs!Now, on to the less popular (only because it's fairly new): VoxATC: http://www.voxatc.omVoxATC is absolutely amazing. It's still in early stages of development, so there's a few quirks, but overall it does the job well. Basically, you speak into your microphone using the Speach Recognition engine from Microsoft. VoxATC requires you to make radio calls, and then in turn the controller is generated from the text-to-speach software and talks back to you.Flying in my Cessna 172 Cockpit and using these two add-ons, I have to say is one of the coolest simulation experiences I've had yet. I've flown on real military simulators (C-130 at Little Rock, Pope, Dyess) and many other simulators, but this is so cool that I've got the opportunity to use great products such as TrackIR3 and VoxATC.I've got my David Clark's hooked up through an AVComm interphone to my computer in my home cockpit and it's totally clear and adds even more realism.If you haven't tried any one of these, you definately don't know what you're missing. If you're getting bored with Flight Simulator, then try this combo, or at least one of them. I recommend you give them a shot!Most of my "how I did it" is listed on my website, so if you want to wire up some Aviation headsets, or learn more about TrackIR, check out my site.

Hi Eric, just took a quick look at your website WoW! What a project. I will have to come back to it and read the whole thing. You should really write an article on your project for one the FS magazines or websites about it.Questions:1. I thought IR3 was for 3-D effects inside a VC. But you are building a 3-D cockpit. Why would you need it then? I can only think for maybe turning your head quickly to move the scenery?2. I (like many others I'm sure), have thought about creating a cockpit. But what happens when you want to fly... say a 737! ;)

Hi Mike!If I ever get the opportunity to write an article for a magazine, I will. I've written two published books in my lifetime, so writing is easy for me :)1.) Yes, it is for 3d VC cockpit only. However, even though I have a real cockpit I still only have a forward view. Using the TrackIr, I still turn the VC on and then use the VC for looking around. I hacked the .mdl file once to remove the VC from the view, but then it makes you too disoriented that the view is moving, but the cockpit isn't there to gain your reference points.2.) Yeah, well if you want to fly a 737, you're kinda out of luck! Having the push-pull throttles isn't very fun with a real big airplane! In my old simulator: http://www.alarus2000.com I could just make a new panel and switch a A/B switcher to the multi-throttle quadrant and then I could be off to flying higher and faster. With my current setup, I'm out of luck. But, I chose realism for this simulator.

TrackIR 3 with the Vector Expansion is simply awesome. I find myself flying almost exclusively in the VC nowadays because the experience is so immersive.

Agreed! It's pretty cool to be able to lean over and look down at a road or tower that you're flying over. What's even neater is when you look up and follow traffic across your screen. I have about an 8 foot wide projector screen, so it's definately realistic on that :)