And THEN we had to get it off the lift gate of the truck. It was... interesting...

I feel like Indiana Jones opening the location of the Lost Ark...

I bet you never knew you could de-mothball a fighter plane with just a multi-tool... 

" Dad, Santa came, can we open it?"

"Well, you see son, the Flux Capacitor connects to the Occilation Overthruster and...
it looks like you need an oil change and a good dusting." 

(Left to Right) Nick's Brother Ben, Ben's Brother Nick, Me, and Jay. 

Detail pictures...

I got a good deal on the cockpit itself... but the shipping was almost as much, 
pushing the total cost to almost double our agreed upon price.

If I lived closer to California I would have used a trailer and drove out to get it myself,
but at the time (2007) gas prices were up around $3 a gallon and after crunching the numbers
it would have cost only slightly less to drive there and back to Minnesota (halfway 
across the country).

It is without a doubt the most expensive real prop (or for that matter, replica) that 
I've ever purchased. Still paying for it. (^_^)

The prop house was asking $5,000, but I got it for less than half that with all the crating 
fees and shipping.

Wish I could have gotten the ISSCV dropship as well, but their asking price was $20K, 
so that Wasn't happening. (^_^)

Factoid: The steering "wheel" flight yoke is the wheel from a Formula 1 racing car.

The pistol grip flight stick is bolted to the right hand console. When you see pilots 
move the stick in the series, they are inside the motion axis cockpit mounted on a gimble.
The gimble cockpit was also the only one with functioning video monitors in it...
But mine will have them eventually (see the end notes section...)

The shoulder "harness" is mounted to a spring loaded pin. When actors would get into the cockpits
the harness would be in the up position. A "technician" would step forward and lower the harness 
onto the actor's shoulders by pulling the locking pin and lowering it by hand.
rewatch the series and you'll see it happen.

Also, there's a few times in the series when you see either techs or pilots standing 
near the rear of the cockpits when the hatch is lowered. That's because they manually 
activate the air piston switch to raise/lower the canopy.

Correct, the yoke is for flight control and the pistol grip was normally 
only seen used for launching either bombs or missiles. The yoke also 
does move in and out about 4-5". It also has a push button box on the 
right side of the yoke to "fire guns." Although technically it should be 
mounted on the inside of that grip. The ergonomics are way off for practical 
use. smile.gif

The pistol grip is an actual military surplus fighter plane pistol grip stick.
All buttons do move on it. It's actually pretty cool, I just wish it moved 
forwards and backwards like the one in the Gimbal cockpit. (^_^)

The only thing "missing" from my cockpit (aside from button covers) is 
a display panel that's supposed to be located under the flight yoke. I think
that perhaps only the gimbal mounted cockpit had that, but I could be wrong.
I believe a couple of othe other cockpits had them, mine doesn't even 
look like it was ever mounted there.

I should mention that while the actors on the show all looked tall, they were 
in fact shorter in height with only one of them (as I recall) being over 6 foot tall,
and that was Rodney Rowland (Hawkes).

Having said this, getting in and out of the cockpit is a bit of a squeeze for myself 
who's just over 6'.  You need to push the yoke in as far as it will go, turn it sideways
so the handles are on top and bottom, then you should have enough room to fit your 
legs in. Also, there's a reason why they abandoned the aarmored Shin guards later 
in the series. You cannot get into the cockpit with them on. (^_^)

Another Factoid: The pilot helmet connect hoses are the same as used on the breather 
back packs. They're a clothes washing machine hose with a spring loaded 
plastic quick disconnect nozzle. 

So apparently havaing a button to start the engines is just optional equipment in the
future... or somebody salvaged it. I'm leaning towards that latter option.
There's a few bottons missing from my cockpit sadly.