You can custom retrofit an aircraft instrument panel, so why not do the same with a table-top flight simulator? That’s the idea behind the new Flight Training Panel Advanced Cockpit from PilotMall.com. Using a clean-sheet, 14-gauge steel instrument panel that accommodates the Saitek flight simulator flight instruments, avionics and hand controls, the training panel allows you to add Saitek components by simply removing the pre-configured instrument slots — just as a shop builds a custom panel.
This means you can add instruments or change the layout as your real panel changes. Saitek instruments and radios are popular simulator components but customers have demanded a real instrument panel for mounting them, and Pilot Mall delivers with a panel that even includes a 1/8-inch black ABS glare shield. The instrument panels and radio stacks — which can include an autopilot — are fully functional, and can be configured to work in real-time within the Microsoft Flight Sim X program. A basic panel starts at $299 while a well-equipped panel is around $1000.
PilotMall’s Neil Glazer showed us a demo at Sun ‘n Fun. Click here for that video.
