Where were you on November 11, 1982?

[VBHB 298]

Wasn't even thought of then.

[joe cooper 27]

I was looking to buy a Comodore 64 to play with this new toy

[Lord Farringdon 643]

According to my log book, I was crewing on a C-130 Hercules from Christchurch, New Zealand to McMurdo, Antarctica at the beginning of the 1982 Austral summer season in Antarctica. We used sextants to get us there and back but closer to McMurdo we had to use grid navigation because the south magnetic pole, as most of you will well know, is considerably offset from the geographical South Pole. These early season Operation Deep Freeze flights opened up McMurdo and Scott Base from the long dark winter. We took down the new summer changeover personnel, freshies and mail and we bought home the winter-over's. They were the personnel who kept the base operating in the permanent darkness of Antarctica's long winter. On shutdown in Christchurch on a miserably wet tarmac, the winter-overs disembarked the aircraft and stood happily in the rain showering themselves so pleased were they to feel precipitation for the first time in half a year!

None of us were thinking about computers.   

 

Cheers

Terry    

Edited November 7, 2022 by Lord Farringdon

[sanh 823]

I had just started primary school. A few years after that I played my first flightsim and it was a cracker.

 

[AJZip 259]

I don't know exactly when around that time (probably December) but I went to a large business-sector computing trade show.  Most was still mainframes but there was a big push for the 'new kid on the block'...IBM's weirdly named 'Personal Computer' that was slowly penetrating the UK's consciousness.   And ALL of them were running this brand-new knock-your-socks-off flying simulator as the bait to get folks to stop at their stands. 

Of course, in terms of the individual exhibitors' objectives it was self-defeating as most stands had one running...but it was great for the punters because it gave lots of opportunity to while away the time flying instead of doing the job we were supposed to be doing.  Story of my life ever since...😄   

[Nuno Pinto 1,497]

Getting ready to celebrate my 10th anniversary and having no idea such a program even existed 😁

Probably worried about which LEGO set i was gonna get lol.

[Alpine Scenery 1,609]

1 hour ago, Lord Farringdon said:

According to my log book, I was crewing on a C-130 Hercules from Christchurch, New Zealand to McMurdo, Antarctica at the beginning of the 1982 Austral summer season in Antarctica. We used sextants to get us there and back but closer to McMurdo we had to use grid navigation because the south magnetic pole, as most of you will well know, is considerably offset from the geographical South Pole. These early season Operation Deep Freeze flights opened up McMurdo and Scott Base from the long dark winter. 

Now that is a real adventure there, must have had quite the time.
 

[Swe_Richard 1,180]

I was only three so I guess I was pestering my parents and older siblings to the best of my ability.. 😉

 

[vadriver 256]

1 hour ago, Lord Farringdon said:

According to my log book, I was crewing on a C-130 Hercules from Christchurch, New Zealand to McMurdo, Antarctica at the beginning of the 1982 Austral summer season in Antarctica.

Terry

i think we may have passed in the night ...... over the tasman sea.

enjoyed the day / night, celestial etc & of course a well worn chart.

[dihedral 12]

Was actively flying the Sublogic flight sim on a Tandy TRS80 Model III - had been for about a year ± at that point iirc. Can't stress enough that in those days, it was just incredible to be able to be at home and "transport" oneself into a simulated realm of flight. Been at it ever since... 

[bobcat999 8,623]

I was quite young then, so I was probably out playing in the good old British mud.  
At that stage I had a very particular medical issue where I had to go outside and eat soil three times a day so that I wouldn't die - I am lucky my older brother told me about it!  

[Dillon 2,218]

8 hours ago, David Mills said:

Where were you -- and what were you doing -- on November 11, 1982, the day Microsoft Flight Simulator was first introduced 40 years ago?

Flight Simulator wasn't even a thought in my mind at that time.  I didn't purchase my first version until 1986 for a Tandy 1000TX computer.😎

[edpatino 2,029]

8 hours ago, David Mills said:

Where were you -- and what were you doing -- on November 11, 1982, the day Microsoft Flight Simulator was first introduced 40 years ago?

As far as I remember, I was working in my office with at the time new PC Intel 286, with a green and small curved monitor and getting close to use the first installment of Flight Simulator several months later. And a lot younger, by the way!

[Lord Farringdon 643]

26 minutes ago, vadriver said:

Terry

i think we may have passed in the night ...... over the tasman sea.

enjoyed the day / night, celestial etc & of course a well worn chart.

I'm sure we would have done John 🙂 .  You might appreciate the dilemma one of our Navigators found himself in when departing at about 22:00 from McMurdo with a 06:00 ETA Christchurch. As we headed north, it took some time for the Antarctic sun to set and then it never really did, instead remaining in a sort of permanent twilight until it rose again approaching New Zealand. The poor old nav couldn't  get a decent day or night celestial shot and had to dead reckon us home. But here I am writing about it, so he obviously did a damned fine job in the circumstances 😄.   

Apologies OP for the topic drift.   

[Jayjay 62]

Was flightsimming on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum (which is still in my attic)

Jean-Jacques