A New Office Chair

As a pitiable member of that great unwashed class of low beasts who will never have the opportunity to strap on a high-performance jet fighter, I will confess that during weak moments I have been known to seek the assistance of certain…artificial aids, for the purpose of experiencing some small fraction of that godly endeavor. Strictly for recreational purposes, of course. Personal use only, I have a prescription.

"I'm in here...working."

I speak, of course, of computer flight simulation. Several folks in our community have mentioned in another venue that they too have tried on the 3D-accelerated wings of Icarus. (Indeed, I believe that Lex himself was something of an aficionado of X-Plane, during that purgatorial period when he was forced to wallow with the unwinged.) Since we’re all friends here, I thought I would share my sordid tale as a cautionary note.

It all started, innocently enough, as an effort to clean my office. I wanted to separate my “work” computer station (a Mac laptop) from my “gaming” computer station (a PC). In years past I tried various keyboard/monitor switch arrangements that would allow me to flip from work to play, but the result was a hideous tangle of cables around my desk. I wasn’t gaming much, so I was getting twice the mess for none of the benefit. I resolved to unplug my PC and stick it in the closet.

Logitech G940 force-feedback programmable stick and throttle, which replaced my old TM Cougar. I primarily use a software package that simulates the F-16C, and so the "sidestick" arrangement works. Truthfully, although there is an available attachment for a center-stick mount, it's not so easy to climb in and out of the seat, and so I'll probably stick with the sidestick even if I upgrade the software into a different airplane. The 64th Aggressors ballcap is what I use for the TrackIR vector frame, which allows the computer to track my head movements. My SO has prohibited me from upgrading to an HGU-33 helmet.

Then I saw something on a hobbyist site one day — a separate computer seat/gaming station, originally designed for auto racing games, but also well-suited for flight simulations. It was basically a car seat bolted to a heavy metal frame that served as a monitor mount, with configurable extensions for a flight stick, throttle, rudder pedals, keyboard, and mouse. “This is exactly what I need,” I reasoned. “I have a PC I never use that is in the closet along with a lot of other flight-simulation equipment that I also never use. The precise thing that this situation requires is a home cockpit.”

The ugly brown seat covers are authentic GRU-7 ejection seat cushions that I found at an online aircraft parts supplier. The "desk" is an acrylic surface that rests on the frame and is removable. The blue plastic object is an iPad kneeboard, which I bought in a fit of utter madness. (Makes finding checklists much easier though.)

Very unexpectedly, one thing led to another. I have had many entertaining tool-filled hours bolting parts to other parts, tying cable-filled hoses to metal frames, and searching eBay for discarded ejection seat parts. I still am not doing much flight simulation but I do have a rather unique conversation piece in my home office, the exclamatory responses to which vary pretty consistently by gender.

Some photos below (still a work in progress).  For those fellow lunatics inclined to do something like this, it takes less space than you’d think.  The components are all reconfigurable for different gaming/computing tasks (including, um, work, right).  And the chair is actually very comfortable and excellent for napping.

The keyboard and mouse surface is mounted on a swiveling arm that rotates into place. The stick is bungee-corded to a similar platform that swivels in and out to allow easier access to the seat. Once I settle on a hardware configuration, I'll attach the stick more permanently.

Monitor is an old 24" Dell flat panel screen. There are side frame attachments available that permit a triple-monitor arrangement for better peripheral vision. Sound is an old Creative Labs sound card paired with an old, inexpensive speaker system. I have not upgraded any PC hardware yet.

TrackIR 5. This is a little infrared camera that sits on top of the monitor and stares at you. By wearing a hat or headset with a particular arrangement of reflective squares, the TrackIR calculates the precise motion of your head in 3D, and enables the simulation to smoothly change the view in response. The result is an astonishingly natural way to "look around", even within the confines of a 24" monitor.

About these ads