Hey guys, thanks for the positive feedback. I would hope that this control panel isn't breaking any rules, the "joystick" is a simple arcade jostick, and controls the W,A,S,D keys. So pushing forward is increasing throttle, while pushing left is strafe left, and so on.. This prototype was kind of expensive to build because I had to purchase all the initial tools to build it (dremil tool, drill bits, saws, etc.) Id say the total cost was something around $300 for all of that (plus or minus a bit, because then I also had to buy all the switches too). But the cost of the pieces pales in comparison to the amount of time that went into the design and fabrication.
I hope to make some more of these control panels, because I really enjoyed working on this prototype. There's already ideas floating around in my head on how to improve the current design, and implement different features.