I'll be 77 in a few days and have been simming since a former US Navy Skyraider pilot introduced me to FS95.  I was licensed as a glider pilot in 1965 and over the years have accumulated a few solo hours in power planes but never completed license training.  My first flight simulator came from Jack Armstrong, offered just after WW2 on his 15 minute radio program.  The device looked like a little cardboard Apple IIe and cost fifty cents with two or three Wheaties boxtops.  The airplane was a two inch J-3 suspended on strings inside the console.  The joystick was a wooden sucker stick connected to the strings and actually moved the airplane, if everything was assembled according to the directions.  Years later, I saw a full scale mechanical version of this toy in the San Diego Aerospace Museum, complete with pilot's seat, rudder pedals, instrument panel, and a huge fan to move air and simulate motion.

Achieved 85yrs old 2/22013. GA flyer and always will be!

 

Anamiv

Not even close - 61 y/o.  Guess when I say (to the 'young' guys) that when I learned to fly we wrote our flight plan with quill pen on parchment paper and filed it by carrier pigeon there are those that chuckle and say to themselves "Ha, he had it easy! In my day ..."

 

Private ticket in 1969.  Started RW flying in 1966 - rode my horse Sindbad (see my avatar) because I was too young to drive.  So much has changed since then - would like to do it all again but would not change a thing!! Wouldn't want to miss the dance.

85 - Soloed May 5, 1941 - Stearman

 

My hat is off to you Sir, I am a mere child at 71 and I am ashamed to admit that I soloed in in a Cessna rather than a real aircraft, such as the Stearman. ( I was always taught that real airplanes have a wheel at the back and a round engine at the front.

Almost 59...3 1/2 years to retirement...if all works out as planned.......