What got you in to flight simulation?

[Guest AAF]

This is a question that I've wanted to ask some of you. Elaborate as much or as little as you please. Thanks in advance for your responses!My story: I was in Minnesota at the Mall of America, and a long time ago they used to have a store that was strictly aviation (probably my favorite store in the entire world, but alas I was too young to remember the name). And in one corner, they had a computer. And right under the monitor was this huge setup- they had a yoke and pedals and a throttle (oh my). In the computer must have been FS95. So I headed up the throttle and took off! It was very nice to say the least, and from that moment on I was hooked on flight simulation.

[Guest pez_man]

A nice topic! Actually I had to think about it a bit, but I believe the first time I saw flightsim it was the original sublogic version on my uncles commodore 128 like 10 or 15 years ago. Although then I was more interested in Boulder Dash (does anyone remember that marvellous game?!) I found the flightsimthing really fascinating with all the big maps and stuff you got in those days. A couple of years later when I got my first real pc (an IBM 486SX 20, those where the days!) I got Flightsim 5.0, and have been stuck pretty much since then!/fredrik

[JSkorna 137]

FS4.0 on my AppleIIE, my first computer. Got it the same day as the computer, December 23, 1985. Merry Christmas to Me!!JimActiveSky Support

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I was always fond of flight, and from the mid 60's onward flew often, but how I got interested?I was flying to Europe in 1984, and was browsing a copy of Newsweek (at least I believe it was NW), and it was reporting on the most popular software title at that time--Flight Simulator. When I returned to the States a month later, first thing I did--went out and bought a C64 and Sublogic's FS. About the same time, I started taking flying lessons, and even that version of FS gave me some solid skills on the NAV equipment. My flight instructor, who was also a buddy, would allow me to handle the NAV chores when he went up on his own cross country flights.Sorry to say, I ran out of money before I could log much time (we shared the costs of renting aircraft, thus I learned the basics on a 182--HIS favorite rental), and 1985 proved to be the last year my hands ever touched a yoke. I'm still relatively young, and I'm hoping the Sport Pilot class will make aviation fairly affordable so I can again have the best of both. There's some Sport Pilot class aircraft I can already afford.... I suspect should it become reality, Sport Pilot will keep my weekends spent simming to a minimum...

[Guest]

Have always loved to fly. When I was 13, I was in Civil Air Patrol and a friend's dad was in charge of F-4 Phantom simulators at the local Air Force base. Our squadron had the opportunity to fly the simulator (of course, we all crashed horribly!). In later years, I had friends who had their private ticket and would take me up in their Cessnas. I also flew on helicopters in Southeast Asia. When I worked in broadcasting, I did traffic reports from the backseat of a Cessna 172 over our town. I also piloted hot air balloons. When FS came out, I had to get it. Started with FS98 and then got a new computer and got FS2K2. HarryKey West, FL

[1mikel151 71]

I always had a longing to be around aviation having a Father that worked for Aerospace Engineering and being stationed at the local airport (Easterwood, College Station, TX) where I grew up, but never ventured into the actual flying part of it. Had a flight in a friend's plane (Archer I believe) 3 years ago and got to take the yoke for a bit, WHAT A FEELING!!!It was all I could talk about afterwards. I had just bought my first PC for Rainbow Six and my sister, for Xmas got me CFS2 and I have been addicte.., um, hooked on simming ever since!! Regards, Michaelhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpgCalVirAir International VAwww.calvirair.comCougar Mountain Helicopters & Aviationwww.cgrmtnhelos.com

[jeffyen 0]

What got me into flight simulation was a picture of the globe at the back of the box of MSFSim 5.1., claiming if I bought the thing, I could fly round the world. And I thought to myself, "And a computer game can do THAT?!"So I was still sceptical of how they can put the world into a CDRom and after a few months learning about vors and the basics, I decided to test it by flying from Singapore to Thailand to see how accurate the whole thing was. All I had was an atlas, a protractor and a long ruler. I somehow manage to get Bangkok's airport's ATIS (think it was on the cdrom), and used the protractor to measure the angle between the 2 countries. I took off from Singapore's Changi not knowing whether I would reach anywhere since I had only a bearing and an ATIC freq. The sudden faint crackle of Thailand's atis was the most incredible thing in the world. 5.1's claims were right, this thing really works!And when I was in the army, they charted a 747-400 to take us to Taiwan for exercises, and I had the fortune to sit in first class for free. Not satisfied with playing around with the huge reclining seat, I walked up the stairs and wanted to look around the cockpit. A young pilot came out and we started talking...waypoints, navigation,....and I just couldn't believe it, I was holding a fasinating conversation with a pilot all because I had been playing this interesting little computer game...:)I haven't played for quite a while since FS2000, forgotten most of the stuff... will be getting COF though.

[Guest]

My interest in flight simming started in a whole other galaxy (so to speak). Back in 1991 or 92 I picked up a copy of Microsoft Space Simulator (the reason I purchased that sim is a whole other story) and I became infatuated with it. I could explore what seemed like the entire universe in that sim, and yet the representation of planet Earth was incredibly bland--the surface was basically a giant blurry texture (sound familiar? :-lol). Anyways, this game kept me very occupied for several years until I saw FS5.1 in the stores. I was amazed at how it claimed that you could explore the entire world, and noticing that it was made by the same company as the wonderful space sim I ended up buying it. It turned out to be the perfect complement to Space Simulator (which is now gathering dust on my shelf, ironically enough).And the rest, as they say, is history :-).

[Guest SlimDady]

I must have been like 5 at the time.. my parrents bought a comadore 64.My dad loaded up the flight sim for it.. I think it was either fs1 or fs2.. Landing on the carrier and ####. Even real early like fs4 my dad tought me navigation on the thing. How to enter vor's and follow them. It even came with huge mapsSo thats how I got hooked. Ive had all microsoft flight sims, both combat and regular.

[Noel 4,486]

I was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1988 and had delusions of being a United Airline pilot. So it was a natural!Cheers,Noel

[Guest]

back in 1981 or so, I had an apple 2. A friend of mine told me about afs2 by sublogic. You could actually fly a plane on your pc. The idea blew my mind. And COOL...you bet. I played it for hours. and I've never stopped.I was just remembering how I'd be SO excited if a scenery disk was released, even thou the world was just green and the airports consisted of just white lines that designated the airport!flightsim ver 3...perhaps. Another memory, when Hawaii for fs ver 4 came out...the detail was something I'd never seen before. And there were awesome mountains. That was amazing.Bob Bernstein

[David Vega 348]

Started with Pilot training back in the early 80s, so I thought it would help to get subLOGIC's Flight Simulator for the Commodore 64. Today I have a pilot's certificate, but I'm still flying FS, and I'm sure I'll be for as long as I can do it.Dave Vega

[Guest]

I think I was about six when I got my glimpse of an airplaneon the ground,a curtiss robin that a barnstormer had flown into a Husking Bee, in Nebraska,that was the early 30,s,been hooked ever since,from FS4 to FS2k2,ain't life just great.....asd2002

[Guest]

It all started for me on the Commodore 64, I think the name of the "sim" was Fighter Pilot. Basically green at the bottom, blue in the top half of the screen.. Hours of fun, from then on I was hooked and now the names are coming back to me. ACE, Spitfire Ace, Ace of Aces, Ace2, Soloflight, then I got the Commodre Amiga and it came with F/A18 Interceptor.. My first "vector" graphics sim was truely remarkable, I couldn't believe you could actually see the plane from EVERY ANGLE, and it had carrier landings/launches, and if you had the half megabyte upgrade in your Amiga you got improved sounds (and so far its the only sim where the Sonic boom is heard when breaking the sound barrier). Then I got a PC and bought FS5.1, then FS95, FS98, FS2K, FS2K2 and no doubt FS2k4 and beyond. (not to mention Flight Unlimited 1, 2 & 3, Pro Pilot (lord have mercy on my soul))..Great topic..PS... Almost forgot all the military Sims as well, TFX, EF2000, ADF (then the add-on which was a full prodct) Total Air War, CFS, CFS2. WWII Fighters, F15...Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggghhm the list is huge, better hide this thread in case my girlfriend realises how much I have spent on this damn hobby..)

[Guest metamarty]

Back in 1988 I got a C64 and it came with FS-II. The only thing I could really do with it was read the manual, because with the 2 f/s, flying was virtually impossible. Somehow that game was different because it simulated a reallife system, something very strange to me in that times of sprites and 16 colors. When I got a 286, I got a flightsim game. I don't really know what it was called, but it was something with chuck yeager. It featured CGA graphics, and some "landscapes" that had large pyramids and cubes. It had cessna's and jet aircraft, and also the SR-71. It was so smooth, I had never seen anything like it before. I flew that everyday. I always tried to fly from one point to the other. Later came FS3 and I got a real world, and I bought the Europe scenery disc. I was obsessed by it then and started programming software for FS. In 1997 I combined my obsession with networking (packets from point A to :( and Flightsimming (aircraft from point A to :( and I wrote the Squawkbox servers. I now have a full TRC/Goflight cockpit and I still fly regularly.Marty