Maarten Speekman - Mangalore - Victoria - Australia
My name is Maarten Speekman and I passed my PPL here @ Mangalore in Victoria, Australia in 1994, soon after my 43rd birthday. I have always dreamed of learning how to fly, from when I was 10 years old. I use my setup to practice my flying skills on a daily bases to stay as current as practicable. And with my Simkits set-up, it is really "as real as it gets!"
I have been a flight simmer from the early days on the Tandy Color Computer (Coco) in 1984. Then we had just a few white lines on a black screen with the "big six" and "wire graphics" to "fly" by.
Things have improved some what till now.. 4 months ago I read about the Simkits instruments and I ordered first 1 General Instrument, just to see how it went. Soon after I got the rest and now as you can see, I nearly have the full panel complete, except for the ADF (but that is on it's way) I found the service and advise from my Simkits friends terrific, always helpful and prompt. Especially Peter, who has been my greatest asset, answering any questions, all the time and anytime. As you can see I combined the "Go-Flight Radio's together with my panel without any hassles. I already owned the "Go-flight" set-up before I knew about Simkits.
Peter informed me that soon there will be a Garmin GPS available from Simkits, so I've put that on my "things to get" list as well. In the future I'm looking forward to trade-up to the full Simkits Radio stack. I'll be also saving up for the "Full-Motion" platform from Simware Simulations to make the experience complete.
As you can tell, it is a work in progress, and by no means finished yet. However I love the time spend building my instruments and the clear and concise manuals make it even easier. In the mean time I can practice my airmanship to my hearts content, at a fraction of the cost. Also I'm not dependant on time or weather and can try-out stunts I wouldn't dare in the real aircraft. I'll keep you informed of any further progress. Best regards to all my Simkits friends
