Brian McMullan who lives in Louisville, USA earlier sent me his measurements of a real C172M cockpit, from which he replicates his virtual one at home.
The sketch on the left below is the measurements (in centimeter; no distance of pedals from front to back) that he climbed in and measured it out from a real C172M that he usually flies. The one on the right is how he put the Saitek parts on the table top of his virtual cockpit. Even though no FIPs, Brian says that they should fit between instrument LCD and Saitek radio panel, if installed.
You can see the photo of Brian’s virtual cockpit here.
Needless to say, C172 is one of the most favorite aircrafts among FSX simmers and real-world private pilots and PPL learners. I believe I am not the only one who have been searching for this information so that we could build ourselves a more true-to-scale virtual cockpit one day.
Thank you Brian.
FSX TIMES 
Hi folks,
you can get a pdf file 1:1 from this link at MyCockpit.org
http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showthread.php?t=19451
Measurements:
http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showthread.php?t=17024
I made mine from this drawing for the outside shape and dimentions and yoke placement. Fitted Saitek gear according to there size leaving enough room for 11 Fip’s around the yoke.
Hope it can help someone,
Mario
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Great. Thanks Mario.
Tom
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Hello,
Thanks a lot! It helps more to build a good enough cockpit. Still a question the depth from the MIP to the rudder pedals. And to be honest ma English is not good enough and e.g. I’ not so clear what “DISTANCE FROM FRONT EDGE OF SEAT” means on that page. Is it the backrest or the front of the chusion? So what is 58cm? :)
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I believe it should be the the front of the seat, not the backrest.
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For that part I would not worry to much about it. My Cockpit is about 10cm higher then it says for comfort and because the saitek pedals take a bit of room, so for the high go with what ever is comfortable.
I printed the PDF file in many pages, tape them together, then trace the outline and mark the center of the yoke, plus I made mine the full height including the small part in the center for the center console, again to better fit the switch panel under the yoke. I made a small shelf inside to better support the Saitek yoke and screw it to the shelf. The Yoke is cutout to fit and sticks out 30mm from the face of the panel, again it was to leave enough room for my hands when I push in on the yoke. I did not wanted to close for the FIP’s behind it but again it’s up to you.
I made the center console a bit longer 21cm wide x 36cm long(from the Panel) x48cm high behind the throttle (52cm at the throttle) and installed 2 throttle angle back,easier to push and more like normal, cause I still like to fly Big jets with 2 to 4 engines. Blue lever is Spoilers, 4 Black Throttle, Red lever Flaps. Each throttle are independent reverse trust when in the lower position, like the A380 as only 2 inboard reversers so I can do that by pushing only the 2 center trust lever back. Plus I plan to put my IPad behind the throttle against the GA throttle sort of at an angle like the FMC. I still can put the trim wheel at the end of the center console later.
Mario
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OK, thanks a lot!
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FaBrick -have a look at
Click to access Cessna172NPOH.pdf
you can work out some of your required measurements from that document (sect. 6) by using the cockpit width as a reference measurement
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zeus981fsx,
Thanks a lot! I have it, but I couldn’t read out the real data what I need (e.g. distance between the instrument panel and the yoke, means how long is the yoke’s bar; or the position of the pedals compared to the instrument panel in centimeters).
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Thanx for sharing. I will probably not build the whole cockpit, but the dashboard I will try to replicate. Now things get much easier.
Thanx again Tom
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You’re welcome Daniel.
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So nice! I’m going to build my own home cockpit, and was looking for the internal dimensions of C172. Now I could get it. Thanks a lot!
One thing would be useful to me to see the measrements from side view. It would be useful to know the distance between the window and the instrument panel’s front, the distance from instrument panel’s front to the yoke (pushed and pulled), distance between the instrument panel and the seat’s back, also the distance the rudder pedals from the front of the instrument panel.
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Agree. Let’s hope somebody will share their information.
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Nice and simple!! I did also a lot of looking on the net and it takes time to find the info but more and more people are starting to share to info it become a little bit easier, like for example this blog, again thanks Tom for doing it!!!
I’ll dig up what I found when I made mine and send it to you Tom.
Mario
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Thank you Mario. I look forward to yours.
Tom
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This looks great.
I did my PPL training in C152 and C172 and a Piper Archer.
His cockpit looks very comfortable, I wonder where he got that bucket seat?
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Brian in the description of his cockpit photo said that the seat was from his wife’s Honda odyssey van.
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..nice, it’s fairly easy to get this staff, as mentioned, the 172 is very popular, my problem is to get the measurements for Bonanza A33F or the Baron 58, hard to find those one
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Let’s see if someone would share their information.
Tom
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