Building a Cessna C-172 Flight Simulator for a flight school

My aviation enthusiasm led me to commit to a 4-year long side project.

The Story Behind the Simulator

After I left the Air Force, I started flying in general aviation as a hobby. This led me to meet the CEO of the Lesnovo Airport`s flight school - George Vlaykov.

George loved the Plilatus PC9m flight simulator I made earlier for the Bulgarian Air Force.

Because George and I shared an entrepreneurial spirit, it did not take long for us to start creating an EASA-certifiable flight simulator.

I was given a scrapped airplane and a ton of help from the aircraft technicians to restore it.

Developing the force feedback

Spring-loaded mechanisms were used to simulate the forces on the control surfaces. The yoke & rudder pedals were connected to a kinematic system that allowed the pilot to feel the simulated aerodynamic forces on the aircraft.

Conventional 24V DC motors were used to tighten and release the springs on the feedback loop.

Developing the avionics

After the cockpit shell was done, one of the key things to figure out was how to implement the indicators and various switches & buttons. I removed the main panel and re-made it in 2mm stainless steel so it can fit my custom made gauges.

It took a lot of planning and engineering to embed the various system indicators on the main panel.

Having previous experience with such projects helped me to fit everything on the first try.

I manufactured my own flap lever & indicator from the same 2mm stainless steel I made the main panel of.

You can see it in the following video.

An interesting part of the simulator is that it had hot-swappable avionics panels - a classic six-pack and a glass cockpit with a Garmin G1000.

They were made from a sandwich panel composed of PCBs, CNC cut gauge faces, 3D printed knobs, and a stainless steel cover to keep it all robust.

Placing the panels on top of a touch screen allowed the avionics to have both knobs and touch functionality when needed.

This is how the panels looked like while developing them.

This is how the panels were fitted inside the cockpit.

The project is composed of numerous custom-developed components, PCBs, and code, but it will make this part of the portfolio unnecessarily long.

Feel free to contact me if you would like more info or knowhow on how to build a C-172 sim yourself.

Here is a video of the end completed project.

Special Thanks

I need to say thanks Kiril Dryanovski, an aircraft technician in Lesnovo, who worked outside his job description and work hours to help me with the project. He developed the kinematics for the controls and rudder pedals and built the force feedback mechanisms