Airliners.net

Just curious....anyone out there a non-pilot for whatever reason; i.e., lack of time, money, nausea but long-time home-based flight simulator enthusiasts to the point that you would call yourself a flight sim veteran? I am a non-pilot but after 20 years of flight simulation, the opportunity to obtain my PPL is still intriguing.

My question is: How did you begin flight simulation and why; i.e., how did you discover it??

For me, I just happened upon MSFS while doing some surfing one day, and I've never looked back. That was in 1999. Today: Still piloting flights on x-plane.

I have about 1.5 hours from such experiences as Discovery Flights but no serious reality flight.....hmmmm... at least not yet.

My friend got me FS2004 for my 8th birthday and I was hooked. A couple years later, I successfully landed my first plane. Since then, I've been teaching myself more and more about how to fly. Got FSX in 2011. Since then, I've learned how to properly use autopilot, FMCs, ILS, and so on. Now, I still play every chance I get when I'm home from break, squeezing every last bit out of my computer to make it work.

I dont normally post much on here, after once drunken stupid post haha. BUT this is a topic i can answer.

I think anyone who really enjoys flightsim alot, can recall with fondness how they began their journey. For me personally it was summer 1996, shortly after twa 800. I had just moved cross country and was not at all, at the age of 12, looking fwd to getting on an airplane. My dad, recommended i use a flight sim to learn more about and eventually feel less hesitation about flying. He handed me a floppy disk, yes FLOPPY, haha, with FS5 on it. The internet was still in it early stages, and i recall reading on flightsim.com, about this great addon for FS5, called FSFlightShop. It allowed the ability to download 727s and pretty much any other airliner from the web, and fly it. One day at costco, i found the box for FSFS sitting out, grabbed it and begged, and i mean begged my parents to get it for me.

After that i was hooked, ive had every version of "FS" since except FS95, mostly becuz by the time i learned enough to keep upgrading, FS98 was already out.

I did wish to become a real world pilot, but life didn't work out that way. Tho i do work for a major airline. To this day i fly P3Dv4, in my home cockpit flying the latest 787 around the world. I have even gotten a few of my fellow coworkers to get into FS. Its a great hobby for any AVgeek. And unlike realworld plilpts i can fly almost any aircraft anywhere!

-Tony@PVD

I first saw a flight sim many, many, many moons ago, at a show and tell when I was in middle school. My first sim was an early version of MSFS. Now I've progressed to P3Dv4, but haven't touched it in months. Maybe the last time was when I took some screenshots for the screenshot thread here.

I've done a couple flights, but haven't taken any lessons. I would love to pick it up again, but who knows.

FS 2 (on 5.25" on a 286...), FS 3, FS 4.1 (came on both 3.5 and 5.25 disks), FS 5, FS FW95 (on CD wow!), FS 98, FS 2000pro, FS2002, FS2004*, FSX* P3Dv1/2/3, Sierra Pro Pilot, XP9/10/11, Aerofly FS2* ( *= still using)

Not to mention things like F-15 Strike Eagle, F-19, Falcon 4.0, IL-2, LOMAC, Total Air War... of those i think IL-2 is the only one I'd consider a decent flight sim...

Still doing dev work for FS2004 and use it primarily just cause I'd rather be flying in my 1989ish world in it than a modern world in FSX and with the mods i run there is very little better in FSX that i care about over FS2004... P3D I've given up on with my current system, it just doesn't like something... FS2 I'm warming to but it's still not as "ready"as FS2004/FSX/XP11. XP11 I'm slowly expanding into but I'm not sure I like parts of it... we will see.

Only problem is once Windows 7 gives in... I don't know if FS2004 will maintain it's edge.

I likely will never be a real pilot...

Not a pilot. Been using Flight Simulator in different versions since 2001. I'm pretty sure I have already more than 15k hours spend if I count everything in regards to flight sim, that includes flying, testing, tweaking, supporting, painting, creating and agonizing about things that did not work as planned.

In 1989 I was flying flightsim, on a commodor 64 computer.
I am now 61 and still fly FSX SE 3 days a week and I love it.

In the late 70s I signed up for an introductry flight an was hooked. I simply could not
afford to continue to obtain my private license but always infactuated with aircraft.
I have flown MSFS for 25 years, Have become a decent sim pilot, have learned much
about the industry, the aircrat, and many of the great pilots of past and present.
A really great hobby !
Thank you for asking
Pomie

I've been a Flight Sim veteran since FS1 on the PC and FS2 on the Apple II (which are largely the same thing). I've had every release since then and have spent many, many hours in FSX, both flying and customizing and adding on to the program so it's more realistic and more fun. I haven't spent a ton of money but I do have a couple of payware planes and quite a few free add-ons, and have spent a lot of time tweaking them to get things just right. I also own both the boxed copy and FSX:SE.

I don't have either Prepar3d or X-Plane, both of which I know are better/more modern. I will upgrade eventually; I've just put so much time into FSX that it would be difficult and time-consuming again to duplicate all that I have in either of those newer sims.

I will say also that I am about to start training at a major airline (one of the new ab initio programs) - don't want to say which one, at least not yet. But I definitely think my sim experience helped get me accepted; knowing terminology, basic aerodynamic concepts, and definitely hand-eye coordination all helps. I've also taken a discovery flight and did extremely well according to my instructor; she called me "a natural" and said I got through the first three lessons in the first hour.

So simming can't turn you into a commercial pilot but I do think it helps as a teaching aid if you do want to take that step in learning for real.

I discovered flight simulators when I was a kid in the 1990s and I was over at my friend's house. We somehow got around to playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 95 on his computer and I was in awe of that game at the time. I got my own copy of it and played that for years although I had no idea what I was really doing for many years.

When I was a young teenager in the early 2000's I upgraded to Flight Simulator 2004 which was a huge improvement from Flight Simulator 95. I played that version for several years and enjoyed it greatly even though I was still a total noob when it came to flying the planes in a realistic manner.

Some years later I obtained a copy of Flight Simulator X. This is when I really started to get more serious about Flight Simulation. While I was in college I played FSX a lot and began to learn how to fly in a more realistic manner. I began learning things such as ILS approaches, how to properly use the autopilot, what speeds to use what flaps at, etc.. I also began experimenting with downloading freeware aircraft, modifying the default aircraft, and creating my own liveries which was a lot of fun. Soon after this I began to realize how limited the default aircraft in FSX are. I had graduated college at this point and now had the money to start buying payware aircraft. I also realized that flying with the keyboard was no longer going to cut it and I finally purchased a joystick. Payware aircraft and flying with a joystick introduced me to things I had never done before such as programming the FMC/FMS, using actual procedures to configure and start the aircraft, playing around with trimming the aircraft, and manipulating the throttles in a realistic manner rather than just mashing keys.

I have self taught myself almost everything I know about flight simulation and I enjoy the hobby immensely. I wouldn't say I'm the most experienced flight simmer out there but when comparing myself to most others out there, I have 15-20 years of flight sim experience on and off so I am probably more skilled than the average simmer. It's amazing to see how far flight simulation and my personal skill level and knowledge has come since the 1990s when I started out as a kid. I never ended up becoming a commercial pilot due to color impairment with my vision. One day I would like to look into getting my PPL but flight simulation still satisfies me and is far more affordable so I will stick with it for the foreseeable future.

Next on the list is to upgrade to either Xplane11 or P3Dv4.

Wow this was a nostalgia inducing thread topic. Thank you for starting this.

Although I am not a non-pilot (I am an airline pilot flying 320s today), I remember getting into flight simulation in 1984-85 as a teenager with the subLogic Flight Simulator II, which was a back-port of Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0 (a 16-bit port of subLogic's Flight Simulator on the Apple II to the IBM PC) back to the 8-bit Commodore 64/Atari 800/Apple II computers. I still have the original box with the two 5.25 inch floppies, manual and the 4 maps of the 4 areas we could fly in (Chicago, New York, Southern California, and one other place I can't remember) and subsequent released scenery disks which for extra money ( I guess the first additional content for extra money even though you bought the game) expanded the flying world in small chunks at a time. You booted with the first floppy, then the program would prompt you to insert the second floppy, and then the game finished loading and you could go flying from Chicago's Meigs Field - the field where every beginning virtual aviator started their flying "Career"

SubLogic continued their development with a separate flight simulator program called Flight Assignment:ATP that featured commercial airliners (Boeing 737, 747, 767, Airbus 320, Shorts 360) that you could fly all over the United States (MSFS you were still confined to the 4 areas and had to expand with scenery disks) So I played that a lot in the early 90s when I should have been writing term papers in college.

Eventually I ended up owning every version of MSFS except for MSFS 1.0 and I've stopped purchasing flight sims after FSX but I can't seem to find any of the other versions of MSFS other than the original subLogic FSII package.

Although i flew MSFS a lot in my teen years and for years after college, it didn't translate into a desire to pursue a commercial aviation career. I did earn my private glider certificate and flew gliders as a hobby for 10 years. I did meetup with another a.net user who set me up for a session in a MD-11 simulator at Boeing Long Beach. My wife said that I had the biggest grin ever flying the MD-11 simulator so dissatisfaction with my current career and the necessity of getting a job to pay bills due to a mid-life career change forced me to get airplane add-ons to my pilot certificate to go into commercial aviation, and eventually become an airline pilot.

I found it interesting that when I was in training to learn to fly the Airbus 320, our airline used an FTD that had no visuals, - it was just the instrument panels - to work on getting procedures and flows down before moving on to full-motion sims for flight training. Later when I went back to the FTD a few years later for captain upgrade, they had added a flat screen monitor to provide a tiny view outside - it turns out the FTD was using Prepare3D for the graphics engine for the outside view and I suspect P3D was probably driving the instrument panel before the visual was installed.

So for those of you running P3D. there you go, it's used for real world airliner training at least in one instance anyway.

I stopped flight simming after I got into commercial aviation - no money - no time I guess. I still have all of the software to get FSX running, but it seems a hassle to get it set up and running, and I guess I can't remember how to set it up. don't know if Microsoft still has the activation servers to get FSX activated.

While I'm a non-pilot and will still be that way for whatever reason, there are various flight sim games that got me hooked. Some of my longtime faves are the A-10 Tank Killer and its sequel, A-10 II Silent Thunder (Sierra/Dynamix), and MS FS98 (my childhood flight simulator). Since FSX came out in late 2006, it became my new favorite FS over FS98 because of its drastic differences in graphics, as well as variety of airports to fly to and variety of aircraft to fly in, and even the realistic scenery and textures.

Less than a year since I got FSX for my 12th birthday (I had FSX since late 2006), I lost the installation DVDs for the program; since after installing FSX SP1, at one point or another, whenever I change the view to cockpit view from virtual cockpit or from cockpit to VC, it would crash the program to desktop. I didn't want to go through the hassle of reinstalling the whole program from scratch and lose all of my mission rewards as well.

Then on Christmas 2014, my younger brother got me FSX for Steam (a Deluxe version-based FSX with both SP1 and SP2 installed along with the Acceleration pack), in which eliminates the need for the installation DVDs and require only a download from the Steam server; I did indeed backed up my mission rewards and restored them after installation in a directory under my Users file. What a difference the Steam version of FSX makes, as it runs very reliably without crashing to the desktop compared with the earlier version of FSX requiring separate installations of SPs, and the Steam version also includes automatic updates, so that the program can run smoothly over time.

With my time in FS, I learned about the aircraft controls and functions, including the autopilot, the navigation systems, and radio. I had also been acquainted with how to properly take off and land and aircraft, as well as how to navigate from point A to point B, and even fly in various conditions such as in bad weather and landing on a short runway.

Going beyond the flight simulator games, those FS programs had inspired me to go to air shows and watch some airplanes doing aerobatics, as well as going plane-spotting and taking pictures of various aircraft, including commercial jetliners and modern military aircraft, and even start a model aircraft collection hobby.

While these flight simulator games won't make me become a pilot in real life, nor will I intend to become one, it did helped me develop a hobby in aviation and expand it to new heights that amazed me in many ways.

I haven't played Flight Simulator in years. However took me a while to take off lol and then use the way points to align with the runway. All those different angles to view your plane in flight. A far cry from today''s HD flight decks. Though I have to ask for those flying for years would you say you could actually take off and land in an actual flight simulator. I would probably crash and burn.

I’m not a pilot and I’ve only been playing FSX, Infinte Flight and X-Plane 11 for maybe 2 years now but I’ve played them every second of spare time (mostly X-Plane on PC and IF on my phone) and I can decently fly the 737-800. Earlier this year I had an hour in a flight sim, which REALLY helped my knowledge of the systems and I still fly at least 4-5 times a week.

Not a veteran but a constant player.

I used to use FS2004 and FSX quite a lot, got fairly involved in it. I've drifted away from it and probably won't go back. After seeing all the controversy of that one addon developer putting dodgy stuff in their addons, I don't trust any of them now.

I used to have FSX running on my Mac in Windows. Now I just don't bother, I haven't run FSX or windows in probably a year or more.

Flightsimboy wrote:

Though I have to ask for those flying for years would you say you could actually take off and land in an actual flight simulator. I would probably crash and burn.

I'm not sure. If you put me in one for a plane that I know fairly well (the Concorde) I might be okay, but those modern Boeing and Airbus planes, doubtful. Not going to happen anyway. The sims have been pretty much ruined when they were decommissioned as far as I'm aware. Unless someone has one that still runs on original computers and the motion rig is operational.

Started with FS98 in 2002 then went straight to FS2002, then FS2004, then FSX and now because I work for Lockheed Martin I get the highest version of P3D for the price of $0. Love flying online with others more than alone.

On this day I type this I have an unopened Occulus Rift sitting on my couch. Tried it in the tech center here at work and had to have it.
I used to want to fly for a living but seeing so many crashes this year and the expenses involved have changed my mind. Maybe one day i'll get an ultralight.

Flightsimboy wrote:

Though I have to ask for those flying for years would you say you could actually take off and land in an actual flight simulator.

It depends on the plane, of course. I *have* flown a real Cessna 172 and it was actually easier than it is in FSX, for a bunch of reasons. X-plane (which I now have) is the same but in different ways. The real-life Cessna 172 practically flies itself - trim it right and you need no inputs at all. And one thing that PC-based sims don't do well is visibility, because of the way computer graphics cards work. Obviously in real life there's haze, fog, etc. but you don't even realize that in PC-based sims, there's a kind of constant "haze" caused by the filtering that graphics cards do all the time, even if you set your weather to be totally clear. And there's no way around that, because even if you turn filtering off, you end up looking at ugly un-detailed pixels and shimmer on distant objects. In real life, you can see runways and other landmarks from much father away. That's not even mentioning the seat-of-your-pants sensations you get in a plane like that, which help you know what's happening. So in a slow-moving, highly stable aircraft like the 172, real-life flying is actually easier.

Now, put me in a full-blown 747 simulator and I'd give it maybe a 70% chance that I even make it off the ground - and those ain't great odds if you're a passenger! I don't know how to program its FMS or calculate things like runway lengths for a given weight, thrust and flap setting. On a long enough runway, I'm sure I could do it if you gave me a V speed table. But I'd have no idea if the runway itself was long enough to begin with to reach those speeds. And manuevering and landing would be similarly challenging.

I do have the Wilco E-jets for FSX and I've learned its systems and how to program its FMS and I know how to fly it at various speeds and altitudes. I also fly using real-life departures, arrivals and airways. I'm sure I don't know everything and I wouldn't want to try flying the real thing without a lot more training, but put me in a full-blown E-190 simulator and I think I'd most likely be able to take the plane from cold and dark through a full flight and then land and park at the destination gate, using all the proper procedures.

So, I do think PC-based sims can be good experience, but it depends on what you're used to flying and how seriously you take it.

Thanks spacecadet. Great username

I just started enjoying aviation. I got FS2000 in December 2000 I think. Remember not having a joystick and trying to do the Chicago-London mission with the 777. I would later get a joystick and start teaching myself how to fly the default airplanes. 734, Lear Jet, 777. It was short simple flying around but IMO pretty impressive for a 11 year old.

Upgraded to FS02 when my friend across the street got it from his parents and he had a yoke set up and everything. That is when I first started using add ons and created a fake airline "Landmark" from FS, that I still mess around with on a word-doc to this day.

FS9 was the real upgrade where I started using add ons, AI traffic, flying trans-atlantic flights, and learning more complex airplanes. I remember teaching myself how to start the Ready For Pushback 747-200, pressurize the Iron Knuckles DC-9, and then fly the PMDG 737NG and PSS Dash-8-300. FS9 had tons of add ons for me and I flew all over the world as much as I could while I was a kid. Long Haul overnight (even with friends in my room as co-pilots) and short hauls.

In college I finally upgraded computers and got FSX. While I have my most fond memories in FS9 as a kid, FSX has been the most realistic and "challenging" flying on flight sim. Pretty much only fly realistic add ons that mirror the real thing like PMDG, 737, 777, 747, and Majestic Dash-8-400. Live weather, ILS auto land, NAT Tracks etc.. When I was still in grad school I would do a lot of flying on school breaks. Now I am lucky to get a flight or two a month.

It is just something that I enjoy doing, enjoy the challenge or a different airport, with live weather etc..

As for real flying. For a very long time my dream was to be a commercial pilot. When I was in high school and college a career as a pilot looked like a horrible career. Family and pilots told me not to do it. It has now changed drastically (very good career for the moment at least) and I do regret not going for it. Though my life would be different (maybe not for the better) if I did.

I am currently saving up to get my PPL. And if I am able to ever find myself in the situation where my debts are paid (loans mortgage) and things are looking good I will certainly want to try to get a commercial license and see what I could do.

Flightsimboy wrote:

I haven't played Flight Simulator in years. However took me a while to take off lol and then use the way points to align with the runway. All those different angles to view your plane in flight. A far cry from today''s HD flight decks. Though I have to ask for those flying for years would you say you could actually take off and land in an actual flight simulator. I would probably crash and burn.

100% could put me in a cold and dark of a 777, 737, or 747-400 and I could get that thing going. Taxing might not be easy, and landing with anything but perfect weather might not go great. But I am confident I could get it down in one piece. I know the systems well enough, could always go for an airport with an ILS Cat III...

Still have FS2004 on my laptop, and that is the whole reason I refuse to get a new computer because I don't want to have to re-install all of my add on aircraft and scenery. I have a joystick and the CH Pro Pedals hooked up to my computer as well. Which reminds me, does anyone have those rudder pedals and notice that the plane tends to drift off to one side? I've tried calibrating but no help.

As for real life flying, I'm no pilot. I have 1.4 hours of flying time, .6 on a C152 and .9 on a Piper Warrior. I'd love to fly more, but money is the problem not to mention PTSD from a plane crash so I'm not ready to do more than just fly around up there.

flymia wrote:

I just started enjoying aviation. I got FS2000 in December 2000 I think. Remember not having a joystick and trying to do the Chicago-London mission with the 777. I would later get a joystick and start teaching myself how to fly the default airplanes. 734, Lear Jet, 777. It was short simple flying around but IMO pretty impressive for a 11 year old.

Upgraded to FS02 when my friend across the street got it from his parents and he had a yoke set up and everything. That is when I first started using add ons and created a fake airline "Landmark" from FS, that I still mess around with on a word-doc to this day.

FS9 was the real upgrade where I started using add ons, AI traffic, flying trans-atlantic flights, and learning more complex airplanes. I remember teaching myself how to start the Ready For Pushback 747-200, pressurize the Iron Knuckles DC-9, and then fly the PMDG 737NG and PSS Dash-8-300. FS9 had tons of add ons for me and I flew all over the world as much as I could while I was a kid. Long Haul overnight (even with friends in my room as co-pilots) and short hauls.

In college I finally upgraded computers and got FSX. While I have my most fond memories in FS9 as a kid, FSX has been the most realistic and "challenging" flying on flight sim. Pretty much only fly realistic add ons that mirror the real thing like PMDG, 737, 777, 747, and Majestic Dash-8-400. Live weather, ILS auto land, NAT Tracks etc.. When I was still in grad school I would do a lot of flying on school breaks. Now I am lucky to get a flight or two a month.

It is just something that I enjoy doing, enjoy the challenge or a different airport, with live weather etc..

As for real flying. For a very long time my dream was to be a commercial pilot. When I was in high school and college a career as a pilot looked like a horrible career. Family and pilots told me not to do it. It has now changed drastically (very good career for the moment at least) and I do regret not going for it. Though my life would be different (maybe not for the better) if I did.

I am currently saving up to get my PPL. And if I am able to ever find myself in the situation where my debts are paid (loans mortgage) and things are looking good I will certainly want to try to get a commercial license and see what I could do.

Flightsimboy wrote:

I haven't played Flight Simulator in years. However took me a while to take off lol and then use the way points to align with the runway. All those different angles to view your plane in flight. A far cry from today''s HD flight decks. Though I have to ask for those flying for years would you say you could actually take off and land in an actual flight simulator. I would probably crash and burn.

100% could put me in a cold and dark of a 777, 737, or 747-400 and I could get that thing going. Taxing might not be easy, and landing with anything but perfect weather might not go great. But I am confident I could get it down in one piece. I know the systems well enough, could always go for an airport with an ILS Cat III...

Hope your dreams come true. Very impressive about what you said in reply to my quote regarding a dark cold start up. How do you emember where everything is....awesome.

This YouTube channel "TheFlightChannel" has some awesome graphics both inside and outside. And rhe tatmac action has moving vehicles and walking ground personnel. Wow! And on 4K TV it is really sharp. Makes me want to go back to Flight Sim after almost ten years and more.

If you've been playing flight sim properly for 20 years, then you will 'fly' through your PPL course.

I remember, having played flight sim for years beforehand, when I took my first trial lesson, the plane reacted precisely how I expected it in all phases of flight, and I got my PPL license with only a few hours above the minimum required.

Got into flight sim, because I wanted to fly airliners since I was a kid, and that was the only way to get it out of my system!