How many more old timers out there?

[birdguy 3,943]

Memories.  The most precious thing you have left when you tread the winter of your life.

I just celebrated my 86th birthday.  How many more flight simming octogenarians are there out there?  We used to be real pilots but father time grounded us.  So all we have left are our simulators where we fly the aircraft we used to pilot across geography that was familiar to us way back when.

Who remembers hand propping an aircraft to get the engine started?  Who remembers the old E6B?  Who recalls an old navigation method called pilotage?  Who recalls plotting your course on a sectional and then looking for landmarks as you navigated the route?  Who remembers light signals from the tower because the aeroplane you were flying had neither a radio or navigation instruments?

The weekend before I shipped out to Korea as a young Marine we were given weekend passes.  A buddy and I took the train from San Diego to Los Angeles and then the streetcar to the Pike at Long Beach.

I don't know if the Pike, a large amusement park, is still there.  But it was a hangout for servicemen at the time and a lot of the rides were free if you were wearing your uniform.  The old fashion way of thanking you for your service.

My buddy and I passed this old shack where a costumed old lady asked us if we wanted our palms read.  So, for twenty five cents we entered the shack and let her trace the lines on our palms and tell us our fortunes.

She told me I was going to die of a heart attack when I was 50 years old.  I was ecstatic!  I thought I'm going to come back from Korea and live to be an old man.  Heh-heh-heh.  The perceptions of an 18 year old.

Two summers ago a woman who was in my national guard unit and her husband, now flying Air Buses for American Airlines, flew to Roswell in their American Yankee to spend the weekend with us.  He took me up and let me have a go at it.  I could still do a 360 and hit the 'bump'.  My landing wasn't the best, but not that bad either.  That was the last time I flew a real airplane. And it became an addition to my warehouse of memories.

So let's hear from you other 80 year old flight simmers out there.  Tell us your stories.

Noel

 

 

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Wow.. makes me feel young at almost 74 😉

But I did fly across the Atlantic twice as a boy, first in a Panam DC6B, and back on a KLM Super Connie..  Long flights, with refueling stops at Shannon and Gander..  Nowadays, when visiting the grandkids, I fly the polar route Vancouver London direct..

Edited January 2, 2020 by Bert Pieke

[charliearon 3,024]

By your account, Noel, I must be a young whippersnapper!  I was born and raised in East Los Angeles and knew the Pike..or Nu-Pike as it was called back then.  All of the amusement parks are gone including Pacific Ocean Park (POP).

Dems were da days!

[Adrian123 1,015]

32 minutes ago, Bert Pieke said:

Wow.. makes me feel young at almost 74 😉

But I did fly across the Atlantic twice as a boy, first in a Panam DC6B, and back on a KLM Super Connie..  Long flights, with refueling stops at Shannon and Gander..  Nowadays, when visiting the grandkids, I fly the polar route Vancouver London direct..

Visiting Grandchildren in Austria. Chicago, Amsterdam. Vienna. A350, A330 or 777, 787. 🙂

[vgbaron 3,627]

I'll be 83 this month and I recall a lot of that. Learned to fly at Brackett Field in Pomona. Spent almost all of my time hanging out at airports mooching rides on anything that would fly. I guess I was a real PITA but I got to fly a lot of different a/c. Pre 9/11 it was fun to hang out at airports and visit with the tower crews. A lot has changed but, as you said, the memories linger on.

Vic

[overspeed3 410]

I'm a young 73 and are still flying after getting MSFS Ver. 1 on a floppy in 1985.  Bought almost every FS version since then.

[ppo 67]

Not octogenarians yet, but working on it.

Recently 70.

But an old timer nevertheless. Started early with flight simulators, on Atari ST.

Retired Coast Guard (Canadian).

Flew to Northern Quebec in Super Connie, DC-3 and Canso's of Austin Airways.

Was a Radio Operator then. We cumulated various tasks in these northern posts: ship-shore, domestic air, ICAO flights  on HF.

Lived the change from radio telegraphy to satellite communications.

Liked the job.

Sometimes, we would get a call from an overhead Clipper flight (PanAm) . The pilot would talk to us and we would chat about fishing and hunting in these parts.

I remember the first assignement up on the Hudson s Bay looking out the window of the Super Connie and looking for the settlement. Couldnt see any. It was blanketer with white stuff all over.

Cheers,

Pierre

[BillW 210]

1 hour ago, charliearon said:

By your account, Noel, I must be a young whippersnapper!  I was born and raised in East Los Angeles and knew the Pike..or Nu-Pike as it was called back then.  All of the amusement parks are gone including Pacific Ocean Park (POP).

Dems were da days!

I remember those parks well. Lived in Moorpark till I was 11. Then a divorce sent me and my father to Texas.

Bill W

[Maury Pratt 5]

I'm 85; I miss the early days as a reviewer, editor, managing editor and finally board member at AVSIM Online. Each MSFS release at the time meant bringing together a half dozen or so reviewers to cover it all as best we could. And meeting developers and users at Avsim conferences (I was host at the one in San Diego). OTOH, this past year has been amazing, not to mention anticipation of what's to come. I've enjoyed long term association over the years and on-going now with friends in our San Diego SimFlite club.

Rather than real-world flight (I washed out at Eglin AFB early on with a depth-perception visual issue; even now I can't benefit from VR), my career has been (mostly) in aerospace engineering and manufacturing. Designed tooling for the C-130's forward section at Lockheed initially and later F-104 manufacturing. That evolved into computer-aided design and related computer technology consulting throughout much of the industry.

Not having been a pilot, what got me interested in flight simulation? In the late '90's I was asked to evaluate a simulator to train pilots in evading SAM missile sites, by a company competing for an Air Force contract during the Desert Storm era. At that time an entire wall was covered with blue cabinets comprising the system's graphic processing unit -- it occurred to me then that by the time I retired that function would be built into desk-top computers. I've been fascinated with flight simulation technology to this day.

 

 

[jmdriskell 178]

Well, I'll be 83 this month.  I've been interested in aviation since I was young.  Got my ticket flying with the Camp Pendleton Flying club in the early 1970s and flew as much as I could until I retired.  Then I found I couldn't afford the cost.  If I remember correctly, avgas (130) was about $0.30/gal when we were at Iwakuni, Japan.  The Cessna 172 ran very well on that military avgas.

I generally fly a C-47 or C-118 and use pilotage exclusively to get from point a to b (or sometimes, point c)

I'm looking forward to the next version of MSFS but I'll probably have to spring for a new box to run it on.

Jim Driskell

[vadriver 248]

14 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

I love these threads that make me feel so young!

I hope I have enough brain power left to be flight simming at 80, congrats to you historical simmers.

ditto ... a young 72 !

5 hours ago, birdguy said:

Who remembers light signals from the tower because the aeroplane you were flying had neither a radio or navigation instruments?

me ...... nor a clearance out of bankstown in low vis sydney airspace circa 1974 (shutdown waiting in the runup)

[Bill Alderson 24]

68 here but I feel like I'm over 80! 😉

'

[himmelhorse 1,276]

34 minutes ago, Bill Alderson said:

68 here but I feel like I'm over 80! 😉

'

Bill,

Living in Indonesia with daily brownouts and power failures and an occasional water supply, at 70, I know exactly how you feel

Just as an aside and expanding on the above power problems, note that in the past 12 months I have installed/reinstalled Windows 14 times, replaced three motherboards, 1 power supply, 1 40inch monitor, and, most importantly, I am on my third UPS system. Oh, after all that I still have a little hair left. 

I am actually quite surprised that I am not 90. However, I still wake up every day with a smile on my face (anticipating the next power failure LOL) 

Wishing every body an absolutely great new year.

Regards

Tony

[dmarques69 316]

I'm a young boy with 46, but i just wanna drop a word on you guys that are here with a live over the shoulders with a young a healthy spirit.

My respect  🙏

[Jetset408 108]

Yep another old timer here. Been simming for over 20 years.

I'm 35.