GF-AC Cockpit Control System

Flight Journal, Aug 2002 by Marks, Bob

VIRTUAL PILOT

* GF-AC Cockpit Control System * HOTAS Cougar * E-D Glasses * Fighterstick USB

Flight sim controllers

A LOOK AT SOME HIGH-END HARDWARE

Remember when all you needed to enjoy a flight sim was a VGA computer, a $14 joystick and a chair that didn't cause your posterior to fall asleep? Well, those days have pretty much gone. As desktop flight simulations get more complex, it takes more hardware to run and control them. Sure, you could fly with a cheap joystick and a keyboard, but your workload would go up while your sense of immersion would plummet. The answer? Spend money on new stuff, of course! Let's take a look at some new nuggets of techno-gee-whiz, shall we?

GF-AC Cockpit Control System

Developer: GoFlight Inc. www.goflightinc.com

Recommended system: USB-port-equipped computer running Windows 98/Me/XP/2000; powered USB hub.

Price: $609.70

The people at GoFlight have this technology thing down. A couple of years ago, the GF-AC series of rackmounted programmable desktop controllers would have been a flight simmer's ultimate pipe dream. Let's face it: that delicate feeling of full immersion is pretty well toast if, while on final to your friendly neighborhood airfield, you have to grab a mouse to trim your virtual steed and press the "g" key to extend the landing gear. Programmable joysticks and throttles have helped this substantially, but real airplanes don't have a single key that cycles the gear, and Cessna 172s lack electric trim driven by rocker switches.

Now, thanks to some very sharp code writing and the simplicity of Universal Serial Bus (USB), the hope of having hardware that can wrap its arms around the complexity of modern flight sims has come to fruition. With a wide choice of modules available and with the nearly limitless expandability of USB, the GoFlight GF-AC cockpit control system can be built up to run anything from a J-3 Cub to a Concorde. And as intimidating as a fully populated rack appears, setting up the myriad switches, knobs and displays to fully control the most complex of sims is nearly effortless. The excellent and very intuitive programming of GFConfig software is squarely aimed at the civilian flight-sim market; Microsoft's Flight Sim 2000 and 2002 and Laminar Research's X-Plane (versions 5.65 and up, with increasing functionality in every new version) are also being supported. With the flexibility of the USB protocol and GoFlight's free Software Development Kit, however, those who fancy themselves as adventurous programmers in C++ code can build compatibility with just about any sim in existence.

A full 14-inch rack that consists of one toggle-switch module, one avionics-display head, a gear-- handle/flap-toggle/trim-wheel module and a pair of pushbutton modules will cost just over $600. Cheap? No, it ain't. But when compared with paying more than $1,000 for similar, yet less flexible and far more user-hostile equipment aimed toward the "serious" flight-- training market, the GF-AC system seems like a bargain. Although aimed directly at hardcore flight simmers, it's obvious that flight schools are a natural market for GoFlight's commercial-quality gear. Perhaps the financial sum invested in the GF-AC-with its metal, flat-- black cool of serious equipment-- can be somewhat justified by the smug knowledge that, if you wanted to, you could pitch that nasty old QWERTY keyboard off your desk.