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Guest sgfintl

If you're not a serious simmer you won't understand

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Guest sgfintl

I've been an avid flight sim enthusiast for more than 20 years. I started out on some super simple flight sim that worked on the Commodore 64. Then I moved up to Bruce Artwick's original flight simulator program and spent hours and hours flying between Meigs and Midway in Chicago.As I sit here today printing out the new PMDG 744 manual at my office (on the color printer of course) it occurs to me that very few people get our hobby. "You sit on your computer and 'fly' all night long?" "You fly on your computer? How boring is that?" The amazing thing is that I don't have my pilots license but I have learned an awful lot over the past 20+ years. When I attended the AVSIM convention in Denver last year--and had a dream fulfilled flying a 744 for 2 hours--the UAL training pilot who sat in the sim with us couldn't believe I wasn't a "real" pilot. "How do you know so much about flying the 744?" he asked. "Flight simulation my friend"...and a lot of passion.I've bought all the sims over the years and thousands of dollars worth of addons. Fortunately, my wife allows me to selfishly sit in my office flying for many hours each month. She has absolutely no interest in spending any time "co-piloting" but allows me to have my passion.I remember sneaking in to my previous employers offices on the weekend to print out manuals of simulators now many years old. Each time a new sim was coming out I'd rush to Babbages to get it (they seem to have them before anyone else!) Microsoft's FS 4, 5, 98 all came with eager anticipation.Airplanes from PMDG, Phoenix, Meljet, WilcoPub, etc. have been so awesome. Each manual is like a whole new graduate level class. As I pour over this latest PMDG 744 manual I'm amazed at how much I know about this airplane and how to fly it. It has been 20 years of interest and effort. Knowing how to load scenery addons, mess with AI schedules and planes, AFCAD, weather, etc. is mind boggling to those who are just starting. For those of us who "get it" it just doesn't get any better than this. My adreneline is again flowing as the PMDG 744 plane nears my gate. What a great time to be alive!Best wishes to all you super FS fans. You know who you are...Steve

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Guest LO006

I agree. Im 15 and have been flying the FS series for about 6 or 7 years now (since FS98). Most of my friends are into other stuff like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and those games. They just don't understand how I can sit for hours just flying. It is pretty funny to watch them sit infront of a cold and dark cockpit trying to start the plane up tho ;-). I'm earning my PPL and during my first flight my instructor told that I'm gifted in flying lol. He even let me do the landing on the first flight (which did come out nice). I agree with you. Those of us that "get it" it simply doesn't get better then this. And it keeps getting better. You simply never stop learning in FS do you? It seems everytime I master one thing a new thing comes up that I need to learn.

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3 networked computers ($6500.00)6 monitors ($3000.00)CHProducts Yoke and Pedals ($350.00)Saitek HOTAS ($135.00)TrackIR 2 ($120.00)32 FS addons (and counting) ($????.00)Fly for 3 VAsAverage simming hours per week... 24Yep... I get it!Murray

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Or when you fly as a passenger in RL, and carry charts and airport diagrams with you. Thinking to yourself, should both the Pilot and the Co pilot of this 737 become incapacitated, you know almost every control on the flightdeck (thank you PMDG)...

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>Or when you fly as a passenger in RL, and carry charts and>airport diagrams with you. Thinking to yourself, should both>the Pilot and the Co pilot of this 737 become incapacitated,>you know almost every control on the flightdeck (thank you>PMDG)...Let's hope you can get through that locked door! :DMurray

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Ah well as the pilot is becoming incapacitated, he makes a call over the PA system..."Is there anyone on board, that has flown a PMDG 737NG??" I push the call button, a attendant speeds me up to the cockpit, where the pilot unlocks the door just as he passes out.

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Steve, Others,I am with you on this one.... I too started at the beginning and over the years have seen it get better and better.My dream was to have all the significant airports worldwide covered.... that was when I was doing the Oakland circuits and Meigs - Midway, then I bought the East and West packs of airport data... pretty expensive it was too! Anyone remember that? Came with 2 ringbinders with a few charts.So as the years progressed my dream came true... and then some! Now we have realistic roads, weather, AI traffic, sophisticated systems in aircraft etc etc... and of course the new Queen of the Skies!So now to the future.. with developers like PMDG, Hifisim, Flight1, Dreamfleet, realair, reality xp, simwings etc.... and of course... Microsofts continued development of the platform... it's just going to get better... Best of all, my wife understands and the kids are interested.What a great hobby we have!Cheers,Paul ( SPIM )

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Guest LO006

>Ah well as the pilot is becoming incapacitated, he makes a>call over the PA system..."Is there anyone on board, that has>flown a PMDG 737NG??" I push the call button, a attendant>speeds me up to the cockpit, where the pilot unlocks the door>just as he passes out.You have really thought this one out havn't you? :-lol

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Great post Steve. This is one reason why guys like me have given sooooo many months of our time to test aircraft and without a paycheck. In fact I have spent more time with testing in the last 2 years than anything else other than work. Truth is I will never pilot an airliner or perhaps not even a Cessna but I can use my imagination for the comfort of my living room, all with help from guys like you and developers like PMDG...[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4]

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Guest tmetzinger

Randy, if you ever make it to the DC area I promise you a chance to fly at least a Cessna for real.

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Guest jeffg

Steve, I know that feeling very well,as I have been flying sims for the past 17 years and also have my private ticket but with kids at home not much real flying for the past 7 yrs.I have evey sim also and can't wait for the 747 to get out of the hangar.I was at Avsim last year also and fly the 737 for 1 hr and the A320 for 2 hrs but I have always loved the 747.When I went to China in 1998 to adopt my little girl I fly Cathy Pacific,and going to Hong Kong and back spent much of the time in the cockpit and fell in love with the 747.I was at that time and still do alot of flying with PS1.3 so I will be ready for PMDG's 747.I will retire from the fire fept in 4 years and hope to have my flight instructor by than and do some teaching.BTW for Randy thanks for the good nights sleep last night what about tonight? My wife is about the same as most I will be flying and all I get from ger when I show her something is thats great Jeff But remember your still in Flordia not in the sky get a grip. Jeff

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Guest Floyd312

Great post Steve. Your description of your experiences sounds almost identical to mine. I started out with SubLogic FS1 for the Apple II way back in 1980. I noticed that someone posted a picture of it here: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...id=89811&page=". That sure brought back some memories.

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Steve .... I'm right there with you my friend.Chuck Yeager's AFTFS3I remember the Scenery Disk's by SubLogic. Wow. I would drive miles to look for the elusive scenery disks - especially SD#12. The maps were incerdible with VOR's and NDB's.Anyone remember SubLogic's Jet?FS4 - Support for EGA and VGA graphics! Wow!Build your own plane! Wow! Dynamic Scenery! Wow!FS5 / FS5.1BBS's - lots of downloads Xevius (which became flightsim.com) was incredible.Did anyone belong to Compuserve's Flight Sim forums?Then ATP - Wow! Heaven! (I still have the 5 1/4 floppies somewhere).Airliners, Commuters (Shorts 360), Pilot Rankings!Then Fly! - (enter PMDG). Real switches and buttons. The 777, the 757! Wow. And here we are today... With every navaid, road, hill, river, and airport simulated. We taxi behind a line of traffic at rush hour. We have TCAS, FMC, and even live weather. We have almost any plane we want just a download away. Wow again!And now we're waiting on the Queen of the Skies to roll out from the King of the FS developers.Steve .. I agree. Life is good. Let's pray we'll be around for the next 20 years to see where this is going...See you on the tarmac.Bob


Bob Donovan - KBOS

  • Hardware: i7 11700k on ROG Strix Z590 ► Asus ROG GeForce 3070 ►FDS 737 FMC ► VRInsight 737 Overhead ► GoFlight TQ6 ADV ► Thrustmaster Warthog
  • Software: P3D ► MSFS ► XP11 ► DCS World

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Guest

I told some co-workers that I fly flight sim and sometimes fly long haul flights like Tokyo-LA. "How can you just sit there for 12 hrs?" they ask me... (while they sit all night watching lame TV shows and movies...)They just don't get it. I plan on getting my PPL down the road once I save up some money, but being able to fly a great selection of quality aircraft in a great selection of quality scenery has captured my attention from my casual days first with flight simulator for DOS, then here and there and only Flight Sim 2000 and 2002 did i start to explore the realistic flying part, with FS9 as my learning tool now, where I keep adding tons of AI traffic, buying scenery and airplanes, all to get a sense of "being there" and boy is it great!The soon to be arriving Queen will just make my days even better because my dream is to be a freighter dog, and she is the luxury freighter liner.

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Guest SteveK

Hi Steve,Great post mate, and it sure also brought back some old memories as well with regards to going back a few years, or maybe 10, when the first few versions of FS came out. I unfortunately did not own FS from Bruce Artwick days, although I did see it on a friend's PC many times, and eventually started to get into it with FS'95.I also couldn't wait to get my hands on the very latest versions that came out. If I remember correctly, I think I was one of the first people to order FS2000 off the net, but I suppose everyone will say that, right...:-lolI had been flying FS for a few years, when I decided this needed to go to the next level, so I decided to do my PPL. On my first flight in a C172, the instructor could not believe me when I told him I had not flown an aeroplane before, he honestly thought I was joking. Needless to say, I went solo in a rather short space of time, and I suppose the rest is history.Although I have not been flying for a long time, I still remember the feeling of flying. It is like no other feeling in the world, well, to me at least. It is the ultamate feeling of being free, with just the principles of flight and a difference in pressure around the wings holding you in the air. It really is like NOTHING else.So, if you get a chance, even if you go down to your local airfield and pay for a 1 hour intro flight, do it, go flying. Trust me Steve, you'll never forget it. ;-)And as everyone is waiting patiently, yeah right, for this wonderfull Queen to come rolling to the gate, so am I, as I do believe that this bird will be like no other. It looks like PMDG has raised the bar once more in FS, and I would like to say WELL DONE guys, and keep up the stirling work.Regards,

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