How it all Starts...

[letsgetrowdy]

Hi there,

This is a topic which I'm sure has been reached before, but I am curious to know more about. We, as Flight simmers, are obviously aviation enthusiasts too, and I would like to share where this love of the sky came from... Where it all started for us, to become fascinated in what the world above has to offer, and what made us stop and think about the possibilities of flight. Inspired by a thread on A2A's website, I have been keen to share ideas...
I was born into an aviational family, and my father has worked for BMI for about 16 years to date, and so naturally i have inherited some of his interests. He was in the RAAF in Queensland, and frequently regails me with tails from the force. Since as young an age as I could hear and speak, I think I was captivated by all things with wings, even insects and birds. i was tranfixed with their capibility to fly. My grandfather worked as a mechanic in the RAF in 1945-50, and worked mainly on the merlin engine. with two sources of influence, it was hard not be interested. I have always, and always will shun sport as interest.
I believe the turning point of my obsession for historic aviation was when I was six years old and my father took me to Biggin Hill in 2000, for the air Fair. From the moment the Bretling fighters lifted off, I have been consistantly obsessed with the idea of flying. There isn't one light plane that flies over that I do not observe and identify....
Within the last year, I have flown a tiger moth on several occasions and last week I got 30 minutes done in a Bulldog.

Some may find this topic dull, but it is what matters to me and what I find interesting is hearing people's stories...

[Toastmaker]

Actually, it would be unusual for anyone here to find your topic "dull". As you know, Man has been fascinated with the idea of achieving flight since before the Rennisance. The sky is an element as alien to us earth-bound creatures as the sea is. This is also why there are very passionate practitioners and professionals in the scuba diving world.

Space also draws our imaginations to the extremes, for the same natural reasons. We are as curious as cats, but fortunately more intelligent and innovative! This is why we fly, dive and explore space (when budgets permit) with amazing energy and dedication.

Looks like you have that level of dedication. It will probably take you to great heights and far places !

Good luck -

[OBIO]

My interest in aviation/planes started very very early. There used to be some pictures of me at about 2 and a half years old, playing with a P-51D model that my older brother had put together. I was on the rope bridge that crossed the creek between our parking area and the tar paper shack we lived in at the time (yes, tar paper shack...no shingles, no siding..just several layers of black tar paper. Had a hand pump by the kitchen sink and an out house). Right after those pictures were taken, I fell off the bridge and landed on the rocks 5 or 6 feet below. I wasn't hurt, but the Mustang was pretty mangled.

Some of my earliest memories are of me and Dad sitting on the couch watching WW2 movies or PBS documentaries on the war. Dad would name the planes and tell me which ones he had seen in real life. He would tell me about seeing a flight of B-24s going over his house when he was a kid (back in 44 or 45) and that his best friend's uncle was a gunner on a B-24. Dad told me about seeing an F-8 taking off with full after burner and going vertical as soon as its wheel were off the runway.

I got my first flight simulator back in 1984...a simple 2D affair that took two little joy sticks to fly. Dad and I would fly that little plane for hours and hours. Dad was always mad that he could not land the thing, but that I could land it in the dark with no problems.

Dad passed away back in May of 95, at the age of 56...too young (Mom had passed away 6 years earlier at the age of 47). I often wonder what Dad would think about CFS2 and FS2004...with the 3D planes and terrain and the ability to drop bombs and shoot guns and blow stuff up. There are times that I will take the Alpha Sim B-24s up and fly around for a while, simply thinking about Dad and how much he loved that big heavy bomber.

OBIO

[jmig]

When I was five or six years old I experienced my first flight. Over fifty years later I still remember it clearly. My father had a friend who owned an airplane and one Sunday afternoon he took us flying.

My mother and I sat in the back. I could barely see over the window and think I was sitting on something to raise me up. I remember seeing the cars and thought they looked like little bugs we called "doodle bugs". They are also known as "rollie pollies".

When we landed my father and his friend were going to go up alone. I asked to go and started to cry when told no. My dad relented, the ONLY time I can ever remember him doing so.

As a kid, I can remember taking cardboard and drawing instruments on it and using a stick as the controls while pretending I was flying. My dad had an old WWII headset which I would wear.

As I got older, I built model planes out of balsa wood. I read everything I could find on flying. I still have some books from the 1930s and 40s on flying, weather, and navigation.

In high school I joined the Civil Air Patrol and stayed in it until I became 18 and had to quit. I soloed at age 17 in a Cessna 150. I worked at the local airport for flying time.

I would have never gone to college if it had not been for my desire to be a USAF pilot. I knew I had to have a degree to be an officer and, I had to be an officer to be a pilot.

The USAF sent me to grad school and paid me to go. I lost one wife, in part, due to flying but, the USAF brought me to my present wife over thirty years ago. All in all a very good deal, I would say.

I have a lot to be thankful for!

[Matt Wynn]

my interest in FS started back when FS98 was cutting edge, and was spurred on by attending a plethora of airshows, i then dropped FS completely from 2000-2006 eventually picking it back up after throwing myself out of aircraft a few times attached to a chute! my family are not forces so inspiration did not come from them with me it was a try it, liked it, dropped it, parachute rekindling the old flame, back with fs2004 but saying that lived in Larisa, Greece till i was 7, watched the RF-4's on a daily basis, the occasional mirage, herc or F-1... i'm a HAF nut, if it ain't HAF as a general rule of thumb i ain't usually interested

[stiz]

i actually got intrested after playing CFS2 at a friends house, brought it in a bundel which included CFS1 .. cfs2 wouldnt run so i played cfs1 till i got a new puter, then i started reading the diarys of ex pilots etc, then i went to the yorkshire air museum and saw the halifax sat there towering over everything else (it was before they put the jets in) and its been downhill ever since

[TARPSBird]

I grew up in Northbrook, Illinois near Glenview Naval Air Station which is sadly now gone. Watched the whole Navy aircraft inventory from Korea through Vietnam fly over my house at some time or other, even the blimps. I was always building plane models or reading books on aviation. Joined the reserves at Glenview during high school and flew in old P2V Neptunes for a while until I went to Photo Intel school and then active duty. Spent most of my Navy career in the aviation community (fighter and attack). Flight sim provides me with a chance to actually fly planes (at least in the virtual world) which I never had a chance to do in reality.

[MCDesigns]

Cool topic. My Dad worked in Aerospace Engineering and most of his career (when I was young) was based at the wind tunnel at Easterwood airport, so since I spent many hours at his work place, I had my run of it and all the pilots let me in and around the hangers and took me up on occasion.






I got the flying bug when I was 12 and 2 Chinooks landed next door to my baseball field at the National Guard Armory. It was the first time I had seen anything like them and one of the crew asked if I wanted to go for a ride, it was the most amazing thing I had ever experienced and the start of a love for rotary flight.

[Moparmike]

I first got bit by the plane bug very early too. Both of my mom's brothers used to own their own planes. One a 182P and the other an M4 Maule.
Between that and a flight out to CA when I was 4 years old...back when a little kid could still get a cockpit tour...I was hooked.

Spent a few years getting some right seat time as soon as I was tall enough to see over the panel but never had the cash to think about getting my ticket.

I got my first computer used back in '95 and the previous owner was nice enough to leave FS5.0 on the drive. I've been on the hunt for the latest versions of MSFS ever since. Once I got online I did CFS1 on the Zone for a while but after I stumbled into CFC I've been hanging around here ever since.

Now that I'm not sinking all of my income into my own business anymore I'm tempted to start looking at a PPL or sport pilot ticket again...but lack of time, too many other hobbies, and a pesky Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis a couple years ago keep throwing roadblocks up in my way. Someday...but until then I'll keep "flying by wire".

[pied]

I got the bug at a tender age also, my first memories are of playing 'pilot' on the swingset in the backyard...

It really hit in the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. I lived in Florida (summers pretty much useless...) and I was asked what I wanted to do with my summer. Being the typical teenager I mouthed off and said I wanted to learn to fly.

My parents fronted me the money (damn I mowed alot of lawns to pay them back!) and by October I had a newly minted PPL. When I think back it really amazes me, I wasn't allowed to drive until I purchased my first car, at age 19, but I was flying friends and family all over the place at 16!

I was never able to achieve my dream of flying Navy fighters in real life, but these sims are a distant second best.

I believe that this 'affliction' is genetic, as my Grandfather dreamed of flying (he was an observer on sub patrols during WW2), my Father dreamed of flying (too much real world trouble in his life), and both of my sons aspire to flying the latest and greatest!

I can think of many worse things to dream of....


pied

[strikehawk]

My dad was in the Navy and one weekend took me to our local airport. Sitting on the ramp were a couple of F-11 Tigers. I guess the old man knew one of the line crew because soon I was sitting in the pilots seat of one. At the age of about four I knew that someday I would either be flying or working on Navy aircraft.

13 years later I was enlisted and put 20 years in the Navy, first as an AB fueling everything on the flight deck then as an Aviation Ordnanceman loading everything that went boom on helos, Intruders, Hornets and Orions. I like to think that I got an early peek and my destined journey.

[safn1949]

I started with building models,my first airplane model that I can remember was an A-4 Skyhawk that I bought from a drugstore in Cato,NY.It's now a pizza joint,and some darn good pizza at that.

I have never flown an airplane,I lack depth perception and have awful motion sickness so I stick to flight sims.My time in the service was spent in tanks,my first love.Man what I would give to drive that M60A1 again,but I digress.

So it's airshows and museums for me,I posted some of my museum photos here before the big crash and hope everyone got to see them,I lost them all in my own computer meltdown.:USA-flag:

[letsgetrowdy]

Thanks guys... it is interesting hearing how others began

[cheezyflier]

ditto what the others said, pretty much. i got into it at a young age through my dad.

***on a side note, you seem very articulate for someone who is 15.

[letsgetrowdy]

My interest in aviation/planes started very very early. There used to be some pictures of me at about 2 and a half years old, playing with a P-51D model that my older brother had put together. I was on the rope bridge that crossed the creek between our parking area and the tar paper shack we lived in at the time (yes, tar paper shack...no shingles, no siding..just several layers of black tar paper. Had a hand pump by the kitchen sink and an out house). Right after those pictures were taken, I fell off the bridge and landed on the rocks 5 or 6 feet below. I wasn't hurt, but the Mustang was pretty mangled.OBIO

Same! When I was five, my dad bought me a toy p-51 with droppable bombs, (of course, they were lost within the 1st day ) Naturally every little kid wants to have more toys, so I looked through the catalogue and learned to identify the different planes this way.... But unfortunatly there was only about 6 planes in there so..... at 5 your knowledge is going to be pretty limited. My father also made me a cardboard control panel, with drawn on buttons and dails and little wings attached When I was about 6, a friend came over and accidentally trashed it.... God, i think I cried for a week.

Also, a current bonus for me is that through my dad's work for BMI, I have met a lot of GA Pilots and got flights in all sorts. Aslo, we know a few people who fly warbirds, so at Airshows I'm on the flightline :mixedsmi:

[FengZ]

I was always into planes, but never thought about becoming a pilot.

But a few years ago, i was working on a film in the San Francisco area, but i lived in LA. Thus, i bought a year's worth of Southwest airline tickets and flew back to LA every weekend! By chance, some of the guys i worked w/ in SF were private pilots, and told me that flying is not as hard as you think.....and instead of giving Southwest my money, use it to get a license and fly yourself...

So, one day i went down to Santa Monica Airport in LA, and took a 50$ ride. I was addicted on that day and followed up with 1.5 years of lessons. Since then, i've been in love of aviation!...espeically GAs and 1950s jets.

As for flightsims; i actually never played a single one prior to FS9. I bought FS9 purely to practice for real-world flying during flight school (and it helped a LOT!). But now i'm addicted to both real and sim flying! LOL Flightsim has taught me sooooo much about aviation...espeically its history.

-feng