Dassault Falcon 8X

[737_800 434]

Hi,

lately I was thinking of building a home cockpit. I usually fly airliners in the sim like pmdg 737, but I thought when building a homecockpit I might be happier with a business jet, since it is kind of more flexible. And good think is a Falcon 8X is quite fast and can fly higher altitudes. Beside that it is able to fly long-range compared to a regular 737/320.

However, I am aware of that most people build 737 and 320 cockpits and there are most resources available for that. Now I am wondering if there are recourses available for the Falcon 8X etiher? Google did not lead me anywere useful. Even I don't know if there is any software out there that simulates the parameters of the Falcon 8X.

I was just brainstorming about it...

[Chock 17,769]

First thing you probably need to do is decide what simulator platform to use (P3D, XPlane AeroFly FS2, FSX etc), then look at what Dassault Falcons are available for those, then perhaps consider the budget and the approach you are going to take with construction of the physical form of the cockpit, and from there you'll know more about what can be done and if it suits what you had in mind.

As far as I'm aware, P3D/FSX has a Falcon 50 and a Falcon 7X (Flysimware and Wilco) for it, and XPlane has a Falcon 8X (in development by AeroBask). FSX, P3D and XPlane all have the capability (in some way shape or form) to have you read the data from the sim and have controls and screens operating and displaying the avionics data, so there's nothing actually preventing you from using any of those platforms. to achieve what you want, notwithstanding the cost of hardware. This would in fact be fairly in keeping with the Falcon's screen navigation, since it has one of those weird trackball control things on the pedestal for that.

And on the subject of cost, another thing worth considering is that, ironically enough, whilst glass cockpits are one of the things which typically eat up frame rates, the fact that there are few (or even none) traditional dials in a glass cockpit means that they are comparatively easier as the basis for a home cockpit, since you are basically mounting a few screens in a replication of a panel instead of trying to replicate traditional mechanical instruments. This can be done quite cheaply, especially if you employ touch screens. Then your only real problem is arranging the control systems and physical switches. I can recommend checking out this website for plenty of good ideas on that switchology score:

https://www.leobodnar.com/shop/

Keep in mind that the Dassault Falcon 8X (and the 7X) has a motorised throttle quadrant with three thrust levers of course, so that might be a bit costly to replicate, or at least it will be if you want it motorised. Slightly offsetting that is the fact that it uses a sidestick controller with very few buttons instead of a yoke, so pretty much any joystick can replicate that.

Size is a consideration too. The Dassault Falcon 7X or Falcon 8X cockpit is about seven and a half feet across, so it's not much different size-wise to that of an airliner, but of course you could just create one half of the cockpit with a complete overhead and central pedestal, since most airliner and bizjet cockpits are basically a mirror image for the other seat. However almost every big aeroplane like that has some control or other which is not easy to reach from the other seat, since those things are intended to be operated by two people, i.e. trying to release or engage the parking brake in a B-17 Flying Fortress is pretty much impossible from the pilot's seat, since it is right over on the right hand side of the cockpit, which fortunately these days is not a design which would be approved on a modern aeroplane, but regardless of silly ergonomics such as that on old WW2 planes, even modern airliners and business jets tend to have the overhead divided to best suit a division of labour. A solution to that might be to compress the overhead slightly in size to allow you to operate it more easily, since you'd be hard-pressed to reach the overhead bleed switches, hydraulics and fire handles when sat in the left seat.

Anyway, some stuff to think about. Here's a PDF which might help too. It's for the 7X rather than the 8X, but the difference between the two aircraft is basically their range. In other respects they are fairly similar:

http://www.smartcockpit.com/docs/Falcon_7X-Automatic_Flight_Control_System.pdf

 

 

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

5X, not 8X.. but very well done..

https://www.flysimware.com/FLYSTORE_2015/en/home/40-flysimware-s-falcon-50.html