- making the cockpit a bit wider for American bodies.
I fit inside okay, it was ingress exgress that is difficult. I am 6'1" and right at 200#. This simpit is as wide as possible and still able to be rolled through a stanard interior doorway of Amercican homes (30 inches as I recall offhand).
- instead of the aircraft instruments (which is a nice touch by the way), use that space for the monitor, or make it removable for a flatscreen perhaps.
At one point I was gonna make nonfunctioning instruments out of plexiglass, what you see there is just a laser-print.
- is that a sound system mounted on the back, behind the pilot's seat?
No, what you see in the pictures is a ventillation fan, it sucks air in through the "windsheild" (that is not there) and pushes it out behind. Only way to keep from sweating your arse off. There IS a shelf behind the seat that contained the baby-ATX computer (before I got the mid-ATX), I used it for the subwoofer (Klipsch in my case) so the answer to your question is sort "yes" but it is not visible.
- I'd also suggest that instead of going with the side mounted joystick you add a column from the floor rising between the pilots legs, secure the stick at the top. that way you avoid the hinge-sucking in the gut problem.
I tried that with an old stick, it was my original plan. But think about this...your average computer joystick moves what, 3-5 inches at the top of the handle? Put that on top of a 30-inch tube and resolder the wires. Then you have to move the top of your new stick 3 feet (or more!) for full deflection! I tried recalibrating with it only moving ~10 inches each way but it was far too squirelly. They make a computer centric joystick with potentiometers that have very small throws but it has two buttons on it and i am too used to the HOTAS to lose that. What I did was the best compromise I could come up with, it also allowed me to have a small place to store and use the mouse.
- Does AH support multiple monitors or not?
Nope, best thing going for the surounded visual feel for a simpit is TrackIR though, support for that is "on the list". AH does also not have support for functional gauges like some other simulators games do.
