Why planes?

[conura 45]

So it's something I've been thinking about whilst reinstall my 60gb FSX install (which has now taken around 6 hours...) What it is you like aviation? People often ask me, why do you spend so much time learning about them, spending money on lessons etc. Well, because I enjoy it. Why? I have no idea. I have no idea why I prefer aviation to motor sport, football, anything else... I just do, there's something incredibly cool about being in a (relatively) tiny machine way up in the sky alone, staying up there with nothing but knowledge and machinery. Further than that, I can't explain why for the past 15 years it's been my passion. How about you?

[Mean Aerodynamic Chord 269]

Same thing for me!

[Paul J 349]

.. since 4-1/2 years of age...

[Jacoba 55]

Funny you bring this up, I have a friend who is completely obsessed with car racing. To the point that nearly any conversation we have ends up with something to do about cars, racing or a specific driver. Yet he cannot grasp why I love aviation so much even though he is far, far more obsessive about his bobby than I am mine. Not to mention he has only one hobby, racing... while I love aviation, shooting pool, hiking, hunting, fishing and competition shooting both rifles and pistols.

[MrSpeaker 121]

I remember being on my first commercial airliner as a young lad and saying someday I'm going to own a pc based flight simulator and pretend I'm a pilot.

[Benjamin J 751]

Heh, I have the same thing. I tend to needlessly drag my friends into one flight or another, just to see if they'll like it. They usually don't quite know what to think, although they find it boring. They tend ask me why I like it, and I usually don't really know. I think it has always been the kick of flying from one place to another and executing the takeoff and landing prefectly. Although I'm not particularly strict in terms of realism and I don't really fly by the book, I do tend to fly my approaches by hand at the correct speeds, trying all the time to stay on the glideslope and all that. And when all that goes well, I will be truly happy. That's why I keep flying, I guess: to make another good landing.

[PilotPete99 915]

I've been obsessed with airplanes since I can remember. The first time I remember flying was when I was 6, going from KEWR to KFLL on an Eastern Airlines 727. I though life couldn't get better. The obsession grew although I never really thought that I could actually fly a plane some day. I decided later on that as soon as I passed the CPA exam I would treat myself to the ultimate gift...flying lessons! Since I earned my private pilot certificate 10 years ago, the actual "real world" flying I have done has decreased substantially, with wife, kids, and money getting in the way. Since I probably fly less than 10 hours a year in the real world, my new passion continues to be flight simulation. And of course, I know I will never be able to fly the heavy iron in the real world, but I get to do it in the sim, and I spend 100% of my simming in the big jets. Why aviation? I guess no matter how many times I consider the four forces of flight, I am still fascinated every time I see a plane up in the sky. Is it not amazing that a giant metal tube, sometimes pushing 1,000,000 lbs. can actually fly across the world non stop? It certainly is. The passion for avaition sometimes keeps me going, even at work when I am knee deep in corporate taxes. It's then I think "I can't wait to get home and get simming." Bottom line: Aviation will always be amazing, and perhaps the most amazing thing in the world. Cheers, Pete

[bobb 2]

Hi all,I have been around planes my hole life. My dad always had a real plane and my son in law has three of them now. my grandson fly's and when I ran boats for living two of my boats had planes on floats.So my computer is all that I can have now, so I will enjoy as long as I can.Bob Bazley

[tf51d 284]

I think this may be a subject for "Hangar Chat"

[Johnny767 40]

Interesting Question. I've been amazed at how airplanes fly since I was a child. It is amazing to see how this machine can stay in the air for so long and then come back to earth with such elegance. I think almost all of us wanted to be a pilot (or are already a pilot; or were a pilot at one time). The admiration we have for airplanes, pilots, and the handling of an aircraft, even if it is simulated, can be a great and rewarding experience-- it takes courage, knowledge, and lot of skills. Johnny

[Chock 17,769]

Probably a similar tale to many on Avsim... I've been into aeroplanes since I was a little kid. Part of that is because I used to like drawing and painting pictures of them when I was young (still do that in fact), since aeroplanes are a good subject to test one's ability to draw well, with their complex curves, intricate details and interesting paint schemes. I was one of those lucky people who was always very good at drawing, although certainly some of that art interest stems from the illustrations I used to see in war comics, where the line drawings of aircraft were often remarkably well done, and of course the pilots in comic books were always really cool characters too - much cooler outfits than soldiers LOL - which makes an impression on you when you are young, especially since pilots are usually portrayed as rugged individualists in comic books, so that is something any young lad is going to aspire to. Since that was the case, and my parents both knew I was into that stuff (in fact my dad worked as an engineer building the real things at Fairey), if any relative ever asked my parents ''what would Al like for his birthday?'', they would simply reply, ''just get him a book on aeroplanes, he'll love that'', and they were right too, because I also liked reading about aeroplanes and learning how they worked and were built, making models of them etc, but having been bought all those books probably did help to cement my interest. Buying books on aeroplanes, and lots of other subjects is something that has never gone away, I've got a massive library of books at home LOL, and the desire to learn about things in aviation is in fact also why I volunteered as an Avsim reviewer, since that often requires one to learn about an aeroplane that I might know little about, and I like to learn new stuff. Eventually I got around to learning how to fly the real things (in 1997), since that interest in aeroplanes never went away, and then I got into flight simming since it means one can fly any time you like (and it is cheaper). But my interest in flying aeroplanes took an unexpected turn when I learned to fly gliders, since I found that the additional skills necessary to fly those well, i.e knowledge of meteorology, captured my interest more than flying Cessnas about, so that's where my GA interest now lies. Having been a designer and a writer in my work, which I now also train people in, meant I couldn't be an airliner or fighter pilot as well (although I did come very close to going that route before deciding to go to design college instead!), but it does mean I'm now pretty au fait with creating aeroplanes for flight sims, since design is very computer-oriented these days, which is a plus point I never would have guessed at when starting out as a designer. I'm interested in airliners too, mainly because I fell in love with the DC-3 when I was young (it being a favourite drawing subject), so often my flight simming is centred around airliners because that too is something where one has to learn a lot of new stuff. Most of my friends are into aeroplanes in one way or another too, some being pilots as well, so we can bore the arse off each other on the subject when drunk and everyone else wonders what the hell we are on about LOL Al

[mwilk 1,104]

I spend all day around airliners, then I come home and fly them on my PC. My co-workers think I'm nuts!

[PIC007 82]

Interesting timing on this, I was just discusing this the other day with some friends. Like others, for me, it started when I was a kid. Our house was directly under the approach path for the main runway at our local airport, and just about 3/4 of a mile from the threshhold. From the first memories I have, I was always looking up when a plane went over, but I could not tell you why. I think it is part of our DNA, there has to be a 'anti-gravity' gene in there somewhere. I was facinated by anything that flew, planes, birds, even butterflys and bugs! No one ever either encouraged or discouraged me, it just was there. As I grew older, my father would take the car, just me and him, and drive up to the airport, long before there were fences, and sit there and just watch the planes landing and taking off. I think the first plane I ever saw was a NorthEast Airlines DC3, and I have had a love affair with the 3 ever since. I knew as a kid I was going to be a pilot someday. At the time I couldn't tell you why, I just knew. Maybe it was the excitment and romance of seeing distant places, maybe it was the challange and satisfaction of mastering a complicated machine, maybe it was the freedom of leaving the earth and seeing it from a perspective others didn't have, maybe it was the uniforms the pilots wore, maybe it was all of the above and more, to this day I couldn't give you all the reasons, I just knew I was going to fly. When I turned 18, I explored the military, to see what it would take to become a pilot, since I didn't have the money to finance my plan's. I should mention I don't have a lot of patience, so 4 years college to get into AirForce training was out, 2 years college to get into Navy flight training was out, But the Army said, HS diploma and you are in.....DARN!! Sign me up!!! I won't go into detail but it didn;t work out, I wanted to fly planes, they wanted me to fly helicopters, it was not a marriage I was interested in, but they didn't bother to mention that until AFTER I had enlisted.....so 4 years of time wasted when I could have worked on that 4 year degree...bummer. Rather that posting my life story, the day after I was discharged I headed to the airport to see what was involved with the GI Bill and getting started flying. Unknown to me, my dad had already paid for my private license, as the GI Bill didn't cover that....WOW. 30 days later I had my PPL, 6 months later Commercial, then MEL and instrument ticket. Flying has been a part of my life, in some way, everyday. I have worked many jobs flying, got heavily involved with RC flying as well, started a company that built fibreglass RC models, participated in instructing at clubs, and of course, flight simming. I spent the last 12 years managing an online WW 2 multiplayer combat game with 1000's of pilots. Recently I have been working on a pair of 172's that friends of mine own and getting in some flight time as I can. I can't envision a day that in some way doesn't involve planes and the people who love them. When it's time for me to go, I hope I am in the left seat, just nod off, and the plane just flys off into a beautifull Florida sunrise. Plane's and flying have not only been a part of my life, they are my life, and I have loved every minute of it. And I still can't tell you every reason, some things just defy explanation! Great thread!

[Mean Aerodynamic Chord 269]

Interesting timing on this, I was just discusing this the other day with some friends. Like others, for me, it started when I was a kid. Our house was directly under the approach path for the main runway at our local airport, and just about 3/4 of a mile from the threshhold. From the first memories I have, I was always looking up when a plane went over, but I could not tell you why. I think it is part of our DNA, there has to be a 'anti-gravity' gene in there somewhere. I was facinated by anything that flew, planes, birds, even butterflys and bugs! No one ever either encouraged or discouraged me, it just was there. As I grew older, my father would take the car, just me and him, and drive up to the airport, long before there were fences, and sit there and just watch the planes landing and taking off. I think the first plane I ever saw was a NorthEast Airlines DC3, and I have had a love affair with the 3 ever since. I knew as a kid I was going to be a pilot someday. At the time I couldn't tell you why, I just knew. Maybe it was the excitment and romance of seeing distant places, maybe it was the challange and satisfaction of mastering a complicated machine, maybe it was the freedom of leaving the earth and seeing it from a perspective others didn't have, maybe it was the uniforms the pilots wore, maybe it was all of the above and more, to this day I couldn't give you all the reasons, I just knew I was going to fly. When I turned 18, I explored the military, to see what it would take to become a pilot, since I didn't have the money to finance my plan's. I should mention I don't have a lot of patience, so 4 years college to get into AirForce training was out, 2 years college to get into Navy flight training was out, But the Army said, HS diploma and you are in.....DARN!! Sign me up!!! I won't go into detail but it didn;t work out, I wanted to fly planes, they wanted me to fly helicopters, it was not a marriage I was interested in, but they didn't bother to mention that until AFTER I had enlisted.....so 4 years of time wasted when I could have worked on that 4 year degree...bummer. Rather that posting my life story, the day after I was discharged I headed to the airport to see what was involved with the GI Bill and getting started flying. Unknown to me, my dad had already paid for my private license, as the GI Bill didn't cover that....WOW. 30 days later I had my PPL, 6 months later Commercial, then MEL and instrument ticket. Flying has been a part of my life, in some way, everyday. I have worked many jobs flying, got heavily involved with RC flying as well, started a company that built fibreglass RC models, participated in instructing at clubs, and of course, flight simming. I spent the last 12 years managing an online WW 2 multiplayer combat game with 1000's of pilots. Recently I have been working on a pair of 172's that friends of mine own and getting in some flight time as I can. I can't envision a day that in some way doesn't involve planes and the people who love them. When it's time for me to go, I hope I am in the left seat, just nod off, and the plane just flys off into a beautifull Florida sunrise. Plane's and flying have not only been a part of my life, they are my life, and I have loved every minute of it. And I still can't tell you every reason, some things just defy explanation! Great thread!

Wow. Fantastic story. Really inspiring.

[boeing247 0]

I got into aviation after trying out FS2002. I shortly thereafter purchased FSX (which was actually out at the time) and have gotten more and more interested in aviation. Over the years, I've noticed that it actually relates to a wide variety of subjects--my friends give me weird looks when I go on ranting about the A380 and the 787, but quite frankly, it's some pretty useful knowledge (planes seem to be the USA's last major export...).