There is no need for that really. My neighbour's a pilot and heard my 'engines' roaring one day ... when he first laid eyes on the PMDG 747 on my PC he was absolutely flabbergasted ... didn't know that was possible on a PC, amazing realism and what not ... long story short ... he comes over in his spare time to play. He also taught me a thing or two about flying - very symbiotic relationship. His boyfriend is convinced he is having an affair - because why would a pilot spend time at my place flying a plane on a computer in his time off? It all gets very complicated after that ... need to go land my plane.

Hi All,Well, well - interesting topic, this!Out of the closet: Yes!Do people look strange, when I tell them my hobby? Yes - most of them anyway. They look even stranger when I tell them that once a year, I usually take a vacation to join Team AVSIM in the annual Round The World race...That's one of the reasons I had such a good time at the AVSIM conference in september: Imagine, all these people - and nobody looking strangely at me :) :) :)BRGDSSven Sorensen, EKCH

I think people that walk around a field wearing goofy looking clothes, carrying a silly little stick that they hit an equally silly liitle ball with, then , if that wasn't enough, they chase that ball just to hit it again into some manmade hole.......I think these people belong in the darkest closet, down the longest hall, in the oldest asylum that can be found.John MGolf courses make great airfields once you level the land:-)

I was at a friend's BBQ once and met an A330 pilot there. He said, he just couldn't get the hang of flying planes in flightsim. Said he found the transition quite difficult. Unfortunately I didn't go into detail about what he was flying at the time, but thought I'd approach the subject anyway. At the time, we would have been talking FS2002!

HiI completely agree about how if you fly IRL then it somehow makes FS more socially acceptable, though that may be my own perception rather than that of the people I am telling.I think real world flying justifies the (almost obsessive) level of aviation technical knowledge we acquire in the pursuit of realism.Does anyone else remember The Fast Show sketch with the student guy ordering his girlfriend to remain seated for the entire duration of his long-haul FS Flight? My family gave me #### about that for months..Cheers James(Started simming with Solo Flight on the C64 24 years ago (ouch!), out of the closet to poeple other than family/wife since FS2000)

In response to John M:Couldn`t agree more - the only time I`ve given a golf course any thought is when practising efato`s at NZPP, off runway 34 that is the only option below about 400`.Cheers James

Alas, if I lived in the USA maybe! :-lol - my salary in nominal terms might be impressive, but not when I convert it to 'real' money :-eek :)regards,Markhttp://www.dreamfleet2000.com/a320/custbanner2.jpgPC Power Silencer 470/3.2HT/2048mb/ATI X1950pro/SB Audigy

Now, Now! The comments about golf courses are entirely out of line :+ As a double-addict of both golf and flight sim I probably need to check into Betty Ford. Golf usually wins out in the summer with the nice weather, but siming is it in the winter. Well... I did find that using PC latency and FSAuto start helps make EA Tiger Woods run great ;-) Mike

I've been out of the closet for years. Everyone knows "he's flying his airplanes" if I'm out of sight.The wife doesn't mind as it keeps me home to babysit while she's out. It also keeps me away from the bars and the temptations within, both finacial and physical.She has only to think of the young temptress pushing Heinekinsat $5 a pop at the local bar to acceed pleasently to my whims of FlightZone 02 Portland for $30.

I'm also a huge Star Trek fan, having grown up in the 60s and 70s, so it's actually a tremendous BOOST in my social status to tell people I'm into flight simming! :-)Chuck B.(AKA Trelane)KPHL, KVAY

>>Mark's right. I would say most airline pilots think of us in>a strange way. Can't explain it. They don't understand.>Jim>CYWGOh I think I can understand why they feel that way. I mean, from my point of view, I consider anyone who spends his/her spare time playing 'Microsoft English Teacher Simulator' to be very wierd indeed ;-)

Some years ago I was talking to an Air New Zealand 747 pilot about the fact that I had to discontinue flying due to cost. He said if you want to fly, get a simulator.... we all do. I then purchased Pro Pilot,Fly2 and subsequently FS9. These sims recreated for me the realism I wanted to get the kick out of flying I once had.I have no problem in talking about my flightsim hobby. In most cases the people I speak to are genuinely interested.Richard

Hello ..Ive been out of the closet quite a while...Family has a lot of fun teasing me about my dedicated, addicted and constant FLIGHT SIMMING.I silence them by offering them the opportunity to take over the controls. I get to tease them of their reluctance to do so but when they do I get to tease them even more when I spot sweaty palms and forheads as they try to keep the aircraft from crashing..I rest my case and am proud to be out of the closet...TH

My neighbor is an airline pilot. At a neighborhood get together he thought I worked in the industry. I almost wanted to see how far I could play it! :)We agreed that the best part was you could drink and fly.

Flight Simulation is my geeky hobby and in the same token:I have an Asterisk PBX setup at home with 6 Cisco 7970 SIP phones, can use 'Multi-mode fibre' in a sentence. Steven Hawking is my hero. I read and understand Machio Kaku's explaination of 10 dimensional physics. I force my family to endure Science Tuesdays on the Discovery Science Channel.BUT, in the same token, I'm wearing Gucci shoes today. That is all to say that I am a geek, however, I don't look like a geek; I like to think of myself as a the 'coolest geek there ever was'. SO, if I mention that I enjoy Flight Simulator, most people I know think it must be cool. Little do they know that sitting in front of a computer for 14 hours, making intermittent announcments to my self, on my simulated flight from KEWR-VHHH is about the most geeky thing possible (right behind a seminar on Cisco's EIGRP). There is no two ways about it...Doom 3 is cool, MSFS is not.It's just all in the presentation. My friends think that FS is cool and interesting because I'm cool and interesting around them. My wife whispers on the phone to her best friend that I'm doing geeky things again...it's just that my wife really knows what makes me tick.