While visiting the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this month in Las Vegas, I stumbled upon this creative approach for providing motion sensations when using a PC-based flight simulation program. Most motion generators I’ve seen for hard-core flight sim types use hydraulic or electric actuators to move the seating platform. The Dreamflyer flight motion simulator uses a clever pivot arrangement which allows the pilot to balance their weight, using a joy stick, along their pitch and roll axis while seated in a tubular frame chassis. A sensor under your seat, which is hooked up to a PC running the flight sim software, then interprets the motion of your butt as pitch or roll commands in the software, which are then displayed on a monitor or monitors mounted on the chassis. It sounds more complicated than it really is,  but the video below gives you a good idea of how it works. I gave it a try, flying a Piper Cub in Microsoft Flight Simulator, and it seemed to work pretty well, although I couldn’t get a real sensation of yawing motion. It seems kind of pricy to me, at about $3000, and that doesn’t even include the PC, software, or monitors. But it will never require external power, and should be pretty maintenance-free, so if you’re the type who likes to pilot your flight sim aircraft literally by the seat of your pants, this may be the hardware answer for you.