As most of you will probably know, a Cessna 172 has a throttle and a mixture control, some 172’s have a pitch/prop control too if the aircraft is fitted with a variable pitch propeller that can be adjusted in the air. Although I am building a C172 simulator I elected to add a mixture control too so that I would also be able to fly a 182 from time to time.

Although there are some really good freeware and ‘payware’ designs out there, I decided that I wanted to get the real deal and one again I turned to E-bay ,yes, this is starting to form a pattern and believe me, you will find out that I often turn to Ebay for solutions. Within a few weeks I sourced a throttle, a mixture and a pitch control. Real genuine products that had once flown in C172’s and C182’s .

My Throttle, Prop and Mixture controls, the latter two being original vernier controls.

Again, the necessary customs (import and VAT) charges had to be paid but, taadaaa, I now had real, original and ‘used’ controls. The next mission was to convert these controls to connect to an analogue potentiometer for use in the sim.

In hindsight I did cut the control cables a little on the short side, but never mind, they will function properly for me. If I were to make them again, I would make the control range a little longer to be able to utilise the total length of the 100K linear potmeters.

I set about using Fusion 360 to design cradles for the potmeters. These were an easy print and after printing a prototype, I finally printed three different ones, one for each of the engine control levers.

The prop and mixture lever.

You can purchase the STL files for these levers here! Your purchase will contribute to the upkeep of this website and the sim! Thank you in advance 🙂

The levers are connected to to 100k linear potentiometers placed into a 3D printed bracket. The stl’s for the brackets are available in the webstore.

If you would like to add real aircraft controls like I have done but have difficulty in finding the parts, please send me a message using the contact form elsewhere on this site. I can source the parts and convert them for you.

You will then receive a complete package including the 3D printed parts, converted throttle/mixture/pitch, potentiometer and wiring which is ready to be placed in your panel and connected to your choice of input card.