Original pilot seats, control sticks, tens of meters and many more buttons and switches. Paul van Zomeren built himself the cockpit of a real Boeing 737-800. And with a number of computer screens that function as windshields, the Resident can actually perform flights with the replica. But no matter how well the fake cockpit and simulator turned out, Paul is now putting the structure up for sale.
Paul van Zomeren from Huizen puts his self-built cockpit of a Boeing 737 for sale – NH Nieuws
When Paul leads us to the cockpit, the colossus appears to have been set up in his garage. And because the simulator takes up about half the space, we immediately get to the reason why it wants to get rid of it. “It’s not about the money,” said the self-builder. “But I need the space.”
“I actually wanted to be a pilot”
What drives someone to recreate such an immensely complicated cockpit is a question that is not so easy to answer. “I like challenges”, Paul smiles. “And this is a challenge.” But the fact that his father flew with KLM will undoubtedly also have played a role. “I’ve always had a thing for flying,” explains the resident of the house. “Actually, I also wanted to be a pilot.” That didn’t happen, although Paul did master gliding later on.
Search for thousands of parts
What it did come from is to assemble this replica. Paul pulled it off in about four years, with the help of a number of friends. “One of them took care of the technology. And that’s a good thing, because I couldn’t have come up with that myself,” says Van Zomeren.
He scraped together the thousands of parts, buttons, levers and meters that make up the cockpit. “There are shops where you can buy all kinds of buttons. And there is a lot to be found on Marktplaats,” says van Zomeren. “These levers that can open the side windows are very difficult to get. I finally had them 3D printed in Denmark.”
low price
Whoever wants to become the new owner of the cockpit will have to pull out the pouch. “It costs 12.5 thousand euros”, Paul explains. “But there is negotiation.” Incidentally, according to the Huisaar, that is a very reasonable price since he himself invested more than four times as much to build the simulator.