My stick actually worked ok, and I had many hours of flying time in flight simulators such as Cliffs of Dover, and Rise of Flight without the motor ever burning out (it got quite hot after extended use). Notice the control box bottom right where all the wires end up. Not long after my last post, I got the targeting computer working. A lot has happened since my last blog, so I need to think back over 2 years. Other cool things I saw at Pinewood was the top gun section of the Millennium Falcon, some moisture vaperators, a half covered up crashed tie fighter, and Harrison Fords air ambulance when he broke his leg.Īnyway, back to my cockpit. I won't get into what I thought about episode 7, but I don't mind the new x-wing design, although I think the original looks better overall. I noticed straight away that the dimensions were off, which gave a clue to the redesign. I didn't get to see that much, as the studio doors were usually shut, but the highlight was seeing the full size new style x-wing cockpit on a motion rig that was being filmed outdoors on the back lot. Whilst I was there, security was insanely tight because of a certain film that was also being filmed at the studios, I'm sure most of you can guess what film. Incidentally, as a side note, one of the jobs I did in 2014, was working on VFX for Disney's live action Cinderella for 6 months at Pinewood studios, the first 'big film' I had worked on, which was exciting.

However, all of the positive messages and interest I have received has encouraged me to get back on it. In fact, no, it has come on quite a long way, its just been that my time has been incredibly tight over the last 2 years working on various films as well as other projects. Much of my spare time has been put towards building and programming for the x-wing, rather than blogging about it. It's been a very long time since my last blog entry about my attempt to build a full size x-wing cockpit, and I've received a few messages asking me if the project has died. Due to modern safety regulation, the whole of inside of the car needed tearing out and modern seats fitting (what!! you mean Luke Skywalker was flying in a seat that wasn't fireproof. The car had ended up in a museum for years and then recently some guy had bought it, with the intension of racing it again.

Turns out that it had been in a fairly famous car that had won the world rally at some point.

So I went up to Norfolk to check it out and was in fairly good condition apart from a few small marks. Then, just before last Christmas, I decided to check on the off chance (the usual 'classic bucket seats') and bang. I checked ebay every month for over a year and didn't find anything apart from similar looking but very expensive Porche seats, so stopped checking regularly. Although I wasn't too bothered about having the right seat (after all, you don't see it when you're sitting in the thing), I did think it would be pretty cool if I could get the right one.

X wing fighter cockpit