Hi allI find it amazing reading some of the posts on the forums that Flight simmers still knock what some of the older simmers have come to appreciate. Lets get things into perspective, I and many others go back to the days of wire frame planes running an "ATARI" in retrospect they were simply aweful but it was the closest thing we could get to following our dream. Both computers and software have progressed at an alarming rate to the stage we have now where you can fly the PIC767 to any where in the world with uncanny realism, OK I have spent a small fortune upgrading and replacing my computer(s)and the wife would have a fit if she realised how much. BUT HAS IT BEEN WORTH IT? You bet your life on it. I have progressed as already stated from an "ATARI" to my current system which runs an Athlon XP 2000 and an Asus GeForce 3 64meg graphic card, 512meg DDR 2100 ram which will be upgraded again with another 512 quite soon. This system does EVERYTHING I ask of it, its simply awesome especially when I reflect on the days of the ATARI its mind boggling, I also realise that tomorrow there will be further advancements that will require me to upgrade again and I will because I love this hobby of ours. I consider myself to be one of the pioneers of this great hobby of ours and have many happy hours searching for new files that the very talented people like eric ernst and many others have produced. Over the years I have made countless friends and travelled the country taking my system to various venues demonstrating Flight simulation to the uninitiated. I know that I have inspired others to go out and start enjoying what I have for years and will continue as long as my bank balance will sustain. 767PIC is at least 2 years in front of itself, we really don't appreciate what the team have produced its a work of excellence and I for one am enjoying every single second that I use it. What will be available tomorrow? we will have to wait and see but you can be sure because of the efforts of the 767PIC team others will strife to emulate and supass, a benchmark has been created and any thing less will not be accepted. Fellow simmers enjoy our hobby and FLY SAFELY wings737

Sweet memories! For me it started about 20 years ago with the Commodore 64 (I owned the Vic 20 and the only reason to switch was .... yes, Flightsimulator. You won't hear me complaining about an instrument that is an inch or so in the wrong place. Kind regards,Stephan Haas

Stephanthanks for your contribution, nice to hear from one of the old school who appreciate what we have. FLY SAFELYwings737

Hey Wings,One nice thing about PIC and this forum is that we have a panel that not only is very close to the real plane, but also work flawlessly. The panel is still state of the art after two years. That says a lot about the design team. You can't often get software to stay this current for so long.The other point that is a tribute to "MOST" of the folks on this forum, they are so helpful to each other and "flames" are almost non-existant, which is a real treat.I hope that "ALL" readers on this forum continure to respect one another and keep this free flow of ideas and questions going for sometime.Another "Old" TimerBob JohnsonDenver

I also started out with SubLogic's Flight Simulator for the Commodore 64. My oh my (to quote my favorite baseball broadcaster), how times have changed. Remember when we first got 3D graphics? Wow. I remember starting down the runway and thinking "I can't see any pixels! It's just...smooth."And I heartily agree about the tone of this forum. It reminds me of the PS1 forum. Lots of technical and real life procedure questions, and the only times people get flamed is if 1) They're trying to find a pirated copy, and 2) If they ask questions that could easily be answered in the manual.Jon (KSEA)

Very nice post! Like a couple of others in this thread, I too started around 20 years ago with SubLogic's Flight Simulator for the Commodore 64. What a ride this has been. We are indeed very fortunante to have the combinations available today with PIC/Posky (I LOVE this thing), Commander, 3D Cockpits, FSUIPC, WideFS, VATSIM, FSMeteo, FSNav, etc. etc. etc. And so much more is ahead. The next version of FSBuild, new aircraft, FS2004 not that far down the road, addin programs, and new scenery (Oh yes, the scenery). A very good time to be a flight simmer. As to respect, I agree that this forum is one of the best if not THE best. It does work well when questions are responded to so quickly and with such a wide base of knowledge possessed by the contributors. I think that most of us here never think of questions a "dumb", sometimes redundant, searchable, misdirected, or whatever but never dumb. Well time to head for Oshkosh now...