Manny,seems the Itra stuff is no better than GF. Sorry for the obviously bad advice.Another approach I combined with the GF units was buying a used touchscreen at e-bay. It works great not only with a navstack but also with the GPS e.g.. Only problem is it will no support right-clicks and some add-on manufacturers use right clicks. The new GNS 530 from RealityXP will have an option to toggle that however.For me seeing what I am doing and not having to read the freqs from the main screen makes a world of difference. It adds a lot to the immersion.Of course you will need a dual head for this. But today almsot any vid card has dual heads.Alex http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/106620.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/106621.jpg

I'd got for a turkish starfighter. Not many hours left on them, but it gives you all the realism you'll need plus the added bonus of not having to worry too long about your mistakes.

woops, missed the nice finger. Where do we put that when I bring you there to negotiate?billg

So.. Zane's ACP Compact comes out with a clean bill of health. and If I can combine that with a Touchscreen.. it may be a good setup.Alex,I like your setup.. Nice. :)Did you get to use the ITRA stuff Alex? What was wrong with it?

Let us know how you come out-I am interested in doing the same...http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

>Let us know how you come out-I am interested in doing the>same...>http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgSure.. this is a good thread. To be saved for others as well. Its got lot of good information.BTW... The suggestion of touch screen has set off another idea branch in my head.. I am all excited. hee hee..Check this out.. Wireless touch screenhttp://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...1295&CatId=1449

This explains touch screenshttp://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question716.htm

Alex,Do you have any more detailed information on your setup? I'm looking to do something similar, and what you have going there seems to fit what I want to do. Plus, it takes "minimal" space, which will be wife friendly.Thank you,Robert

Robert,what would you like to know?The whole thing is made from fibreglass which makes for the round and smooth surface. Afterwards I covered it with leather. The panel itself is an aluminium board with cutouts for the monitors and the GF units. The primary flight instruments come from a small 10.5" monitor. I covered it with a woodpanel with cutouts and photo filters for the instruments. Looks pretty cool. Better than on the pics actually. It is driven by project magenta as with the FS9 graphics engine the frame rate hit when using three monitors is not acceptable (was no problem with FS2002).The touchscreen has all the engine intsruments, GPS, weather radar etc.. It is an industrial touchscreen that I bought for little money at e-bay.Other than that I have an AETI yoke (also an e-bay bargain) and a pretty nice dual engine throttle quadrant.The whole thing was built over some years and really wasn't as expensive as it looks. If you build stuff up step by step it isn't more costly than let's say play tennis but still not nearly as expensive than flying a twin in real life. Some of the stuff comes really cheap if you can wait and scan e-bay.My latest addition was a 25" widescreen CRT (not seen on the pics), very cheap now as everyone is going for LCDs (yeah you guessed it, e-bay) and I reworked the whole middle console.Alex

I have a hybrid setup consisting of a PFC avionics stack and a GoFlight floor console with seven panels in it - MCP, LGT, 2 RP48s, 2 T8s, and one GF46. Between these two bits o' kit I have control over almost everything that *is* controllable in the stock FS airplanes (both also work with X-Plane, but not simultaneously.)IMO the PFC stack is the best way to go for radios/DME/ADF, although new retail price is quite a bit higher than your budget. (BUT I picked up the stack *and* a Cirrus II yoke/console for $1000 used (from a company that was liquidating a bunch of sim stuff). I spent another $500 getting things updated and fixed - someone had plugged the wrong power supply in and blew out the controller in the console, and also the stack had a broken shaft due to poor packing.)The thing that makes the PFC stack shine is Pete Dowson's driver for it. I am still amazed at how closely almost all of the panel emulates real-world hardware. Examples:- the nav radios can be set either for flip-flop operation or "radial" mode, where the right hand display of each nav panel can show the radial of the currently tuned VOR that you're on.- The ADF has a count up/count down timer built in - useful for timed approaches and the like.(Keep in mind that these functions are things that Pete has implemented in the driver DLL - the panel is just a "dumb" set of controls and displays.)Furthermore, all controls can be custom-programmed to perform any of the 100's of FS control functions OR generate keystrokes. I use its GPS section to control the RealityXP 530 via keystroke programming, and it works very well.---I like the GoFlight stuff quite a lot in general, but the radio units are a little too "different" from RW radios for my taste. I have had a better reliability experience than the poster that has had a lot of issues - I have seen some glitches here and there but overall everything works well most of the time. I don't use my rig *every* day but I think the value proposition for the GF modules to be excellent in general. (I use the MCP autopilot module all the time; it's an excellent match for stock airplanes' autopilots, but things are more hit-or-miss with aftermarket offerings due to non-standard autopilot implementation.) The software is pretty good, although I am wishing for some more capabilities.---The keyboard version of the ACP Compact was my first hardware gizmo; I did not like it very much at all and was glad to get $100 for it when I sold it. The biggest problem was that it is not programmable (unless they've updated the software for the USB version), and thus you're stuck with whatever FS functions the hardware PAL/PROM is programmed with, and also I had some keyboard interface issues which of course should not be a problem with the USB version.The other thing I didn't like about it is how almost every button and knob on the unit are "double duty" - a clever implementation but in practice kind of a pain.I suppose it might be a good unit for someone on a very tight budget, but I would suggest instead a GoFlight setup consisting of a GF46, RP48, LGT, and an enclosure (the set would run about $600.) This could get you control of all radio/nav functions (frequencies, OBS tuning, heading bug, possibly some AP stuff) as well as gear/flaps trim, and still have a few controls left over for other things.--- I *also* (yes I have too much FS gear) have a Flight Link TR-1 avionics stack (not currently in use), which I got as a part of a used FL helicopter setup (via EBay). It is basically an EPIC controller and expansion card that is set up as a stack, so it has some significant expansion possibilities. It's got a pretty good feel (although I like the PFC's control feel better) but the radio flip-flop operation is not true-to-life since there is only one frequency display per radio. Presumably their KR-1 stack is more realistic (being based on a King stack) but its price ($2750) is quite a bit higher than the PFC stack ($1995). (My TR-1 is for sale; I have pictures at http://blave.smugmug.com/gallery/41357. Price is $500 firm plus shipping (list is $1395).)---I have never seen the ITRA stuff in person but it looks good in the tiny pictures I've seen. My biggest question about that setup (only because I have not seen any user experiences/reviews posted) is the driver software - that can make or break the value of a stack no matter how nice it is hardware-wise.Good luck,Dave Blevins

Manny,sorry nothing's wrong with the ITRA stuff. I simply did not read carefully. I took Eric's post about the simkits setup as a direct response to my post. #### cross reading. Sorry for that.Alex

Dangit Dave... Wish you had posted ealier.. I orded the ACP Compact.Hmmm.. Oh well.. lets see... how that works out.:)

Hmm...very interesting. Thank you for the info on your system. I never really thought to watch eBay for many of the items that I would need.Thanks again.Robert

WOW! Thanks for that info Jim: Will have to remember the default aircraft bit. Haven't flown a default in years. Third party aircraft are worth more to me than external units I am afraid.Happy Flying:RTH

great post. I'm watching this one....billgEDIT: I was going to make a comment about sawing off the front end of a boeing, then, as I read though it, it became clear to me that these guys know what they're talking about, and, not only that, but it's cool! Sorry for the long edit...billg