I'm from the same era. I started my Flight Sim addiction with FS3 on an Atari computer on display at Lechemere. The first copy I ever owned was FS4 on a 386DX/40. I promptly got the Aircraft & Scenery Designer and the Aircraft & Adventure Factory, and thus began my long career of downloading freeware. :D The first plane I can remember was a Delta L-1011 Tristar for FS4. Coupling it with the glass cockpit that came with my Aircraft & Sound upgrade (which included a 747 that sported said glass cockpit), I was in heaven!I upgraded to FS5, and also got that DC9. Another standout hit that I'm surprised no one has mentioned was the Balearic Islands by (I might screw this up) Juan Cabeza...? This was during the time when all the FS geniuses were trying to figure out the new BGL structure, when from out of nowhere this beautiful package is released. Ever since then, things have just gotten better and better, and I'm loving it every step of the way. :DEDIT-- Wow, I didn't realize this was an old topic. I found it searching for something else and had to respond.

Well I can't remember - it must have been something for FS98 or FU2 7 years ago. I do remember two addons that I really liked from the FS98 days: A beautiful Seneca and Swedflight, which was freeware back then.

---ooops--- can't believe I made a double-post :-lol fawking proxy acting up :+

that shows how far Flight Simulation has come in the past 20 yrs.

I'm glad you did reply, I've never seen this.And I also feel old. Disneyland scenery for FS4. It was the matterhorn and the castle, amazing at the time. Got it from a bbs in Orange county CA, with a 1200b modem. My system at the time was an XT (8088 cpu) with a 10MB hard drive and 640k. FS4 was a real slide show at times, Pauses of more than 4 seconds, and it was still my favorite pastime.

Around 1990 I received a 286 w/cyrix 16 mhz cpu, 8mb memory, 4mb on video card and 14" monitor.Ran FS98 by flying w/keyboard commands and discovered flightsim.com sometime later.First download was Nikki Schumanns Cheyenne II Flightsim Gold Medal winner as I recall:-) You can still find it here..... http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kdl/main/18/pa31t620.zipGot every repaint ever made for it along with a download called "blue sky" which fixed the purple sky in FS98.Man those were fun times:-) :-)

>>>>Yep Laemming Wheeler and then him and Skunkworks, the>BBS's and Compuserve forum>>>>>I used to hang out on the LINX BBS a lot back in those days.>It was run by Joe Lincoln here in Houston. Both he and>Laemming did fs work under the name "TEKMATE". I did a lot of>testing for them back a few years ago.>Mainly scenery stuff for FSWOW, etc...I talk to Joe every once>in a while, but not in a few months..Oughta give him a ring>and see how he's doing...Last time I talked to him, he had>moved to a different house, and was trying to get his brothers>ham radio going. He got kind of burned out on the sims I>think. He prefers to tinker in other stuff, such as radio,>electronics, writing code for specific app's, etc...I think>Laemming is still doing some FS stuff, but I'm not sure. I>took over the linx BBS daily chores from Joe for 2-3 years>before it finally shut down. He's still got that original>puter and drive, BBS software, etc I think...Was a mighty>286...Dang...Things have changed a lot since I first started>in 1992. My first sim was fs4, and my first real puter a then>fairly fast 386/33dx.>Real road burner at 33 mhz back in that day...16 mhz was>popular for a run-o-the-mill desktop at that time...I started>doing some software in late 92 or 93 I guess...Mainly scenery.>Some is still on the net...IE: ancient fs4 Houston, and Hot>springs AR, etc..Also later versions.. MKHi, I found this thread by searching and i wonder if you could be of any help.I have been after the TekMate FS5 Hangar collection of aircraft for some time I have some of them (The ones used in the Apollo Boeing & Airbus Collections) I managed to contact Joe Lincoln who ran TekMate some time ago BUT he no longer has the files. Laemming Wheeler was the aircraft designer and i have had no luck tracking him down to ask him if he still has the files. BUT, i do have the files in a later version in a package called "Legendary Aircraft" for FS98Keith

I skipped everything from FS4 up through FS2004. :) My first download for FS2004 was, I believe, a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser in Northwest Orient colors. My first payware was the Flight One/Dreamfleet Cessna 177B Cardinal (I still have it and still fly it, even though it's very long in the tooth now), and those two planes have started a very long and very expensive hobby!Lewis "Moose" GregoryRichmond, Virginia

I don't remember the first ... probably a 737 livery, I am ashamed to admit ... but I do remember the first 5,000. Simvation.com was the culprit ... took me a long time to find the other sites ... and it was like Christmas every day for a long, long time. FS2000. I messed about with FS4 and FS5 earlier but never went online in those days.Mark "Dark Moment" BeaumontVP Fleet, DC-3 AirwaysTeam Member, MAAM-SIM[a href=http://www.swiremariners.com/cathayhk.html" target="_blank]http://www.paxship.com/maamlogo2.jpg[/a]

I bought my first PC, just to play Rainbow Six, got CFS2 for Christmas and one day while doing a search for some info on the flight characteristics for the Corsair, sound Simviation as well and was so amazed at the community and found out about FS2000 and 98 in the process. After some reading I also found Keiths Helipad and started a download frenzy. The first was the MD500 lil bird from Dwight Booth (now runs the LZ).Been downhill ever since, LOLRegards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/mcdcvabanner.jpgCalVirAir International

An addon for FS98 called [a href=http://www.avweb.com/news/reviews/182395-1.html]AviatorPro[/a]. A very cool addon that had five IFR flight scenarios. Each one had some unexpected event happen during the flight. In some ways it was better than the built-in ATC in FS9. Of course, once you flew the five flights, the element of surprise was gone. I wish someone would do an add-on like this for FS9. Very handy for real-world IFR training.

I think my first aircraft download was the Beaver from Fred Banting followed seconds later with some Alaskan bush scenery by Don Moser. This was for FS2000. I was forever hooked on low and slow bush flying after that.

Yeah, I downloaded that Beaver, as well as a Super Cub on floats and some Alaskan scenery for FS2000, both by Ron Ackerly (not sure of the name). I had a blast flying around Alaska with those add-ons.

OMG !!! That was my first addon that downloaded for FS5. It was in Alitalia colors too. I'm speechless LOL

At the time I was using FS5 because I had it for free from somewhere. A friend told me about the web, something I haden't seen before. It wa actually the Humber Bridge (UK) that I remember getting that night although I think there were probably a couple of others on my Singlesided 3.5" floppy :-)Not freeware but I do remember Paris for FS95 which was by MS I believe.BTW I only tinkered with both versions of the sim and discarded them for games that allowed me to kill people (Doom, Wolfenstein etc). I didn't really get going intil FS2002. For FS2002 I went crazy and the thought of trying to remember which was first is a non starter. For FS2002 my first was probably the AVSIM file library ;-)Andrew BrownROARING THIRTIEShttp://www.gordiusfs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/