I got my PPL in 1977.  Continued training on the "old" GI Bill while in the Navy.  Gov't paid 90%.  My flight school owners were Piper fanatics so I've flown everything Piper from a Tomahawk to a Chieftain.  Also, I have two hours in a Lear, just for fun.  Earned MEL, CFI, CPL.  Had to quit in 1983 due to medical stuff.  Flying was a lot different back then.  Tomahawk rented for $17 an hour.  Not every airport was a TSA, just the REALLY big ones.  All guages were steam.  Navigation was all NDB, VOR, DME, etc.  I try not to think about what could have been.

48 years as a professional pilot, fixed- (5000+ hrs.) and rotary-wing (5000+ hrs.) so lots of aircraft. Some of my favorites:

 

Piper Cub!!

Cessna 140

Cessna 177RG

Stearman

PT-19

 

Piper Aztec

Piper Seneca

Piper Navajo

Douglas DC-3

 

Boeing 727

Douglas DC-9

 

Bell 206B, L (very versatile)

AS360 Dauphin (fenestron and a tailwheel)

AS350/355 (excellent cockpit, sleek, fast)

Sikorsky S-58T (big muscular beast, also with a tailwheel)

Sikorsky S-76 (cream of the corporate crop)

 

Microsoft Flight Sim (get to fly all those I couldn't in real life)

 

Any interest in aviation is worth pursuing: it's challenging, fun and cathartic all at once. Keep it up.

 

I wish you the best of luck, clear skies and a tail wind (except on landing).

Started flying in the 80's - solo was a Piper Tomahawk, then checked out in the PA-28 Warrior and full-IFR Archer (where I started working on my IFR but never finished), also checked out in the Cessna 152, 172 and 182. Have left-seat time in the 206 and 210, and had the privilege of flying left seat in a Cessna 310 - my first, last and only experience in a twin. I have just over 600 hours total, and stopped flying some time ago because of money and health.

 

Now, with the complexity of the latest aircraft, like the Coolsky MD-80 and the PMDG 737NGX, with real scenery and weather, I feel like I'm flying again.

Cool story. Thanks for sharing.

I have 200 hours in C172's, with instrument rating. Mostly in the Denver and San Francisco Bay areas. Have been simming since 1994 (FS5), and love aviation. Even just looking at planes at an airport is cool

 

Bruce.

Well, passed the mark this afternoon. Now have 20,001 and a bit hours under my belt...  B)  ^_^  :blush:

 

There was cake and a heavily adapted version of "Happy Birthday"...  :Party:

 

Regards,

Ró.

 

Congrats Ronan. I'm sure you must have been asked this before but I'll ask again anyway; as someone who is up to his eyeballs in real cockpit time, what's the attraction of flight simming for you? A little GA or Bush action on the side, perhaps? :smile: Or do you fly the big iron on the PC also?

 

Just wondering...

Congrats!

 

18,000 more to catch up to you

Thanks...  :blush:

 

 

Congrats Ronan. I'm sure you must have been asked this before but I'll ask again anyway; as someone who is up to his eyeballs in real cockpit time, what's the attraction of flight simming for you? A little GA or Bush action on the side, perhaps? :smile: Or do you fly the big iron on the PC also?

 

Just wondering...

 

Started off as my eldest son is into it, I found the scenery to be far in advance of what we used to get in our work sims believe it or not.

 

I'd say it's the airliners from the likes of PMDG, FSL and Majestic that gave me an opportunity to study aircraft I'd likely never fly that draw me to FS and keep me there. Also Airports and places I don't get to fly to, like Innsbruck and Lukla. 

 

You'd think it'd be too much like work, but it's not, same reason I still do some GA flying, it's totally different kind of experience to flying in an airliner.

 

Regards,
Ró.

 

Started off as my eldest son is into it, I found the scenery to be far in advance of what we used to get in our work sims believe it or not.

 

 

I do believe it. I've often seen footage of simulators and thought how awful the scenery looked. I imagine in a real simulator the immersion comes from elsewhere, perhaps from the familiar cockpit or the scenario being simulated.

I do believe it. I've often seen footage of simulators and thought how awful the scenery looked. I imagine in a real simulator the immersion comes from elsewhere, perhaps from the familiar cockpit or the scenario being simulated.

Yeh, the old sims were very poor on the graphics front, but we got a new one there a couple of years back now, and it's graphics are really good, if not on par with FSX with add-on airports. Makes it an awful lot easier in the sim sessions when you can actually fly with reference to landmarks outside the aircraft.

 

This video has a number of shots of what the graphics are like in our current Flight Simulators at work, for comparison to FSX:

 

Regards,

Ró.