What got you in to flight simulation?

[Guest]

I also was given the SubLogic version as a christmas gift when I was in 5th grade. I remember it only covered certain areas of the US and came with some charts. I flew on an Atari 520 ST PC. I self taught myself everything. I also had to use the default keyboard controls. No internet either. I was eventually flying around the country using scenery disks, the first payware addons. I would be flying, then get a window telling me to insert the scenery disk to continue. I used the Sublogic version until 1993 when I went to college. I didn't have a computer in college, so the next version I got was FS98 when I graduated and could afford my own computer. Of course that was a huge eye opener for me. What progress in those years. The rest is as they say... "history."

[Guest JonP01]

I never bothered with a home PC until 1999 (I figured 10 hours a day on the work PCs was enough). In April 1999 I bought my first home PC - a very simple and slow Compaq. It was also at this time that Microsoft brought out the Windows 98 Second Edition upgrade CD. On that CD was a demo of Monster Truck Madness. This was the first graphically-based game I played on a PC and of course it opened up a whole new world for me. Over the next few months I scoured the internet for game demos that were able to run on my slow PC (a big ask). Probably around August 1998 I stumbled across Red Baron 3D. This was one of the very few games that could run on the Compaq. That was the beginning of the flight sim addiction. Soon after I bought FS98 at a heavily discounted price. Snce 1999 I have bought the following flight sims: Red Baron 3D, FS98, Janes WWII Fighters, CFS1, CFS2, FS2000, FS2002, IL2 and IL2 Forgotten Battles. Needless to say, FS2004 will be added to the list hopefully within the next two months.

[Deaf Pilot 1]

Kinda embarassing but at least its the truth. I was about 14 or 15, and I shoplifted a Flight Simulator 98 CD, and I've been hooked on FS since, lol.

[Guest abent]

I've been fascinated with flight for about 9-10 years now. Here's how I got into simming...I started out RC model flying and that was too hard and too scary :-lol. I mean I spent about $900.00 CAD on a trainer, worked likely 80 hours diligently building it then just about crapped myself on its first flight. I ended up cartwheeling it into the shrubs some flights later :-8 :-lol . I had an instructor/trainer of course who was extremely helpful although he no doubt found me a bit gung-ho. One day he asked me if I'd tried Flight Unlimited. Maybe my trainer was dropping a hint ;-) . He picked up his copy and brought it over to the house. I've been hooked on flight simming ever since. I also took ultralight lessons and fly 172's every summer with my friend so I still love, no crave, flight simming. I still have my old RC trainer on the shelf and when I look up at it and feel inadequate, :( I load up FS and go for a flight in some relatively complex aircraft. :D Nice thread!Adam

[Rottenlungs 0]

hehe - good thread!What got me started was "Solo Flight" on the C64. It was basic, but impressive considering this was about 1984. I also got FS2.0 for the C64, I recall KOAK 27L being a favourite approach on it.Then I saw F/A 18 Interceptor for the Amiga in a magazine. I had to have it so I bought (well Christmas pressie) an Amiga 500 in 1988 just for Interceptor. A quality game.Then FS5.0 (with that taunting picture of a photo-textured Meigs runway on the box) forced me to buy a 486sx25 with 4 Meg ram and 1 Meg SVGA card, bybye student loan in 1993. I bought the PC from a very dodgy geezer upstairs in Tottenham Court Road (you Londoners will know what I`m talking about) and it never worked stably. However it did teach me how to use a VOR and an ILS, and how to grease the Lear into Champaign/Urbana Airport.It goes on! FS2000 - new PC 1999, FS2002 - continuous upgrading of PC`s since 2001!!FS2004, new PC (no doubt!)I wouldn`t change a thing. If I had known in 1984 what Fs2002 would look like now I would have gone nuts waiting!!

[badderjet 181]

Hmmm... That's easy. I got FS98 totally unexpected on X-mas '97. I was around ten (?) (I'll turn 16 tomorrow). Well, I never was too much into aviation before, and did hell not know there was something out there like FS. Well... Then, I somewhat fiddled around with it. There were some initial problems, it wouldn't run on our home 74MHz PC, so I only could "fly" at a friend's 133MHz machine. I always 'overlooked' that message telling something about, hmmm, scenery cache and a CD... Huh, one day I finally discovered I had to insert the CD to see any scenery, yee haa! Before I just chose one airport, no matter which one it was, of course there showed up exactly nuffin. After a while I got a great book about FS98, about 500+ pages (I still use it today sometimes), and that's when the real fun started, 'cause I learned almost everything just from that book, for example landing, navigation... Yipee. I really got fun with it and well... Yeah, that's it, then the obsession woke up. :-hah Quite glad about it! :DThanks for this idea, :-)Etienne :-wave

[Guest Boogie]

Flight sims always fascinated me, although I was unable to 'indulge' until the first affordable home computers became available. My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81, for which I bought a Flight Simulator program (probably running in 16k!). My clearest memory of the program was the jagged horizon when you banked - like a staircase! I later progressed on to the Sublogic Flight Simulators, starting about FS2 (I remember getting very excited about the scenery enhancements with FS3), and the rest is history...Boogie.

[Guest]

For me it was 1984. Along for the ride on my Radio Shack(TRS-80) Color Computer with Tom Mix Software's Worlds of Flight! I still have advertisements from that time period. It was a 32kilobyte machine language program. :( "The program is available on DISK but was specifically designed to bring unprecedented detail and power to CASSETTE systems." hehehe Still not sure what that means.Keep in mind all graphics were in B&W Wireframe.Ahhh, those were the days! :-roll

[Guest estevesm]

In my case I was fascinated with aviation since I was a little kid. Once I got a decent PC (a 486) I bought FS4.0. I, too, was amazed by the fact I could fly anywhere in the world, including Brazil, where I'm from.I didn't have a joystick at that time, so I used to fly heavies with the keyboard.I didn't have money to start flying lessons so I decided to try skydiving, which is a lot of fun, by the way (for 1 minute YOU are the aircraft, for another 3 or so minutes you are a kind of glider...)Anyway, I progressed from FS4.0 to FS5.1 to FS95 (got a joystick at this time, no rudder though), FS98. At that time, I decided to change and I tried Fly! and FU. Those got me hooked up pretty bad... I invested in a decent yoke and rudders and the whole experience enhanced quite a lot.Now I'm in FS2K2 and I like to fly the aircraft I jump from, usually (especially because I have the opportunity to actually see the pilot flying the plane, except for the landing phase... ;-)The interesting thing is that I learned how to speak and the procedures with ATC in English and I have a hard time trying to do that in Portuguese... what a shame...RgdsMarcelo

[Guest Salbado]

I was amazed to see a PC in a store window with a green lined version of a flight simulator (FS2?)and I thought that some day we'll be able to have a full motion sim in a spare room. That was 20 years ago. I was always facinated with flight and soloed in 1991 at Brookhaven in Long Island. To compliment my flight training, I got a 286 PC and FS 4 and had to design all of my own airports and scenery to match my real flying experiences. Later, when I went for Instrument training, I started shooting approaches with FS 5.0 and I think I must have saved at least 20 hours in the air for my ticket. Now the U.S. Navy uses MSFS for their cadets... 500 flight hours later, I thought that $100 hamburgers were a bit much and gave up real flight. However, I never stopped simming as the skills and fun are still with me in my own homebuilt sim. Since jets had to be more fun than C 172's, I decided to build my own A320 cockpit and really have some fun with the available technology which as you guys know, is getting pretty awesome. A pic is attached.

[Toys_R_Us 0]

I flew a lot as a business travelor in my "working days", and I always wanted to be up there with the Captain. Especially on landings.Now I AM the Captain !!! .......:-batBob (Lecanto, Fl)AMD, Athlon XP, 1800+MSI, K7T266 XP ProPC 2100 DDR, 1024 MBXP, Home Edition Elsa GLadiac 920, GF3/64Mb andPNY, Verto nVidia TNT 2-M64/32WD, 100 MB, 7200, Ultra 100Sound Blaster, Audigy MP3+CH Prod, VPP Yoke - Sound CardCH Prod, Pedals - Sound Card

[Guest]

oh boy, where do i start?Well, I saw top gun when i was 17 in the summer after I graduated from high school.(Also had a Honda Nighthawh S for the full effect). Anyway, started flying three years later-private pilot-1990, instrument rating-1993, commercial rating-1995- got girlfriend pregnant-1996-Got married-no more money for actual flight. Well, one day in the winter 2000 my wife buys our first computer(Hp 700 mhz) and to ensure I'm not ###### when I see how much she spent she hands me MSFS2000. Well, I loaded that bad boy up and I was like Chris Rock in New Jack City when he goes back to smokin crack!! Upgraded memory and video card for fs2002...and here's a funny story-After I told my wife we couldn't afford the handspring trio($500) she wanted for work-I made her buy a friend's old palm for $125,which later broke,by the way, she comes home from work one day and sees my brand spankin new Dell 8250 512mb rdram, ati 9700 pro..18 inch viewable crt...she says..."WHAT THE HELL IS THAT BIG SCREEN T.V. DOING ON THE COMPUTER DESK??!!!!!!!!Boy was she ######!I said "honey Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 is coming out and I only had 3 months to get ready!! You woulda thought she'd have come around to my way of thinking when i told her about Dell's no payments for three months but she was STILL ######! But I tell you this, I'm read for cof.P.s. I still fly real world-Cessna 172sp, Cessna 182s Piper Arrow Piper Warrior II- I have 400 hours and am instrument current.

[Guest Salbado]

I like your style!You had to see my wife when I told her I was taking over the spare bedroom for a full sized home cockpit...yoweeeee!A good Flight Sim is a bare necessity.

[Guest Ali]

FOR ME! Well I am starting to believe the main reason what got me into flying in general was....CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG!I had this film when I was a wee lad, and I used to watch it all the time. I used to always be amazed at the flying car bit and I believe that is what got me interested in flying.he he,Alex.

[Guest RSmith]

"Sims" - well that includes the C-150 & 172, and the Piper simulators I used while getting my private at Aerospace Technical Institute (part of Florida Institute of Technology). Love the real flight lessons - but - was totally amazed at how a "machine" could reproduce the illusion of flight ! Back in 1969-70. Guess that was the "real" hook into simming.......Then - with a new wife, 1984, came a "hand-me-down" PC Jr. which the family could not figure out how to use........ but FS worked when I loaded it ! Although into 2nd decade of career, flight time was too expensive for me.... I was thrilled to get back into the left seat, anyway I could...... Have had every FS version since - and probably 10+ computers to support them.....I spend considerable hours simming - and wife is totally supportive - as long as I manage the other "fair share" of duties...... On special flights - family comes into office to watch..... and when guests come over - they always ask for a sample of the "latest".... sort of known to be a FS addict !Now - if I only knew half of what the rest of you guys know on adds & tweaks..... RonChuluota, Fl.