The links at right are to other flight simulation products, flight training aids, and DIY cockpit builder resources which are the most useful or most cost effective solutions for creating an advanced home built flight simulator. The last sections include some of today’s most respected professional FAA approved flight simulator companies that may interest you if money is no object. However, if you are still here we must assume money IS an object!

If its not …call us!

While we endorse all of these products they do not formally endorse SimSamurai.  We chose to provide these links as a courtesy to the flight simulator community because we feel that these products are worthwhile and can help build a flight simulator of any cost or type.

The first four categories are those products that are the most cost effective solutions for a home cockpit and all will work great with any Sim Samurai flight simulator.  Again, our goals here at SimSamurai are always ones that will steer you to the most cost effective solutions that yield the most professional results.

We have provided links to other cockpit builder sites so you can compare the SimSamurai product line to other industry vendors and companies that may either be more advanced than ours or are perhaps less advanced.  Our competitors and peers are listed simply because we want you to know that we are sincerely interested in your best interests even if that means you find what you need elsewhere.

While looking at these other websites however, we want you to reflect on our core principles of form follows function and what we feel a great sim cockpit should be.  This is Affordability, Quality, Ease of Building, and Ease of Relocation.  Don’t forget that we include “aircraft flexible” in this too as we think that being able to fly many aircraft in your hangar is certainly the biggest part of the fun especially for a professional quality home sim!

Only if you are seeking actual FAA certification will this principle ever require any reexamination.  This subject is discussed on the DIY Flight Systems page and the Samurai Way page.  However, there are some newer FAA certified sims which are beginning to implement virtual instrumentation just like we do so again, we urge you to not pigeonhole yourself into just one aircraft type with loads of costly analog hardware and switches unless perhaps you are flying in that real aircraft for a long term career or unless you have found the dream bird you just can’t be without till death doth ye part!

If a true analog “single type” aircraft environment is your end goal don’t forget that our sim cockpits can house most every piece of pro level flight simulator instrument panel hardware that are referenced in these weblinks. However, please keep in mind that using a wide variety of pro level gauges and gauge software will always be more cost effective as it allows you to not pigeonhole yourself into just one aircraft type.  In short, building any “single type” instrument panel with analog switches and tactile hardware will always cost more to create.

You should also consider the fact that more and more general aviation and commercial aircraft are switching to 2 to 4 large LCD screens in the cockpit. So..why not do the exact same at home! In short, this just makes for common sense as it costs less and allows you to keep up with the rapid changes in real world avionics.  Again, the core philosophy of SimSamurai is to offer you the option of building a cockpit which is both flexible and affordable!  So whether you want to use a lot of LCD’s like we recommend or whether you just want to build a single type aircraft cockpit, all of these weblinks will help you to carve out your own unique flight-path.

After review of the small amount of competitors in the DIY home built sim cockpit market we hope you will agree that a SimSamurai flight simulator cockpit is the ultimate way to fly. By choosing one of our sim cockpit designs to either build yourself or buy as a Bare Bones kit or completed kit you can then combine a vast array of hardware and software to make it unique to your needs. 

Lastly, we highly recommend purchasing our tech manual; Sim Samurai’s Ultimate Guide To Advanced Flight Simulation, so that you can learn even more tips on how you can quickly save yourself thousands of dollars while still being able to enjoy a very professional quality simulator experience.

It’s what we do…and it’s what we recommend!

If you are a flight simulator product vendor and want to be added or removed from our free advertising list of hot-links please send an email to simsamurai@gmail.com