Ask santa… 
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Your secret santa recipient is going to burst
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I know its pretty compact but to be fair you are not gonna fit that in a standard envelope.
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The sale fixing of the house is almost finished and I have been able to turn my attention towards hobbies again…
The new VPC Control Panel is up. I moved the CP2 from the left side to the right side and put the CP3 where it was. The CP3 mount is angled 30° to make the lever movements a bit more forward-aft, instead of up-down, if you know what I mean.
With the CP3 delivery I also got a shorter gear lever, for the CP2. The original lever was rather long, which is perfectly fine as this is not uncommon to see in real cockpits. But it didn’t suit everybody and Virpil listened and offered a shorter lever for free.
Now I wish that VR hadn’t been invented, so I could see all the glorious hardware…
No, I don’t wish that. But I do think these panels look great. And, while muscle memory is enough to find the switches and levers, It’s not as easy as looking at them.
Oh well. Definitely a first world problem.
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That looks like early Spitfire vibes. Don’t you have to change hands on the stick for gear up after takeoff?
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Yes. It’s not ideal. But as you say, not unheard of either. Granted the Spit had a yoke grip, that you can handle with your left hand.
I figure that I can live with it. Gear up/down only happens twice in a flight and usually in low stress environments 
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I figured wrong…
Well, I can probably live with having the gear handle on the right, but it soon became apparent to me that I was fooling myself.
But how to solve the problem? How could I fit both control panels and the throttle, on the left side…?
Here are a few pics, illustrating the problem.
If the CP3 (Control Panel 3, SharKa-50) is to be placed together with the throttle, they must be placed side by side or CP3 behind the throttle. There’s no room for a side by side placement and I would have to lean pretty far forward to reach the levers, if the CP3 was in front of the throttle.
But placing it behind the throttle means I must place it quite far back, or the levers will obstruct the switches on the throttle. Unless…I mount it at an angle.
But then the CP3 hangs down so far that I can’t close the left sidewall.
So, the CP3 must be mounted at an angle and such that it can be rotated up, for closing the SimBox.
Now, hanging both the throttle and the CP3 on the slide wall, means it needs beefing up. I added two extra slides and a thicker plate.
Packed up.
Helicopter mode.
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You’re a genius
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the Viggen gear handle behind you on the left? 
Back to the…
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Don’t you think I didn’t consider it…
Well…if you had left the gear handle on the right side then it would have been in the correct place for the Dash-8…then swivel your seat 180º and its perfect for the Viggen! 
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Yeah, but I have a guy to operate the gear handle, when I’m flying, in the Dash. When that guy does the flying, I operate the gear.
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That new VPC button box says overhead panel for the UH-60 or Twin Otter all over it. Maybe time to expand the SimBix vertically?
Edit: I should have said that I like your current setup. That RHS gear lever would have caused me fits in VR. OTOH, it would have worked nicely as an arrestor hook lever in a number of A/C.
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Obviously you need to build a robot…SimFO NG™
I’ll handle the marketing.
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Ill send you my address
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