OT: The Average Simmer's Age...

[LordAkshay798]

Am I the only virtual pilot who is between the ages of 13-15 here? Just wondering. :mixedsmi:

[Rezabrya]

I am 17 but I wouldn't say I am a serious Sim pilot. I buy most of the new payware and I love flying but I don't have flight plans or anything like that. I usually just go where I feel like going.

[djscoo]

I'm 18...I started flying FSX when I was 16 (if my math is correct).

[CodyValkyrie]

Started when I was perhaps 12 or so? 27 now.

[N2056]

Started at 17. 45 now! :eek:

[LordAkshay798]

I started to fly when I was 6 with Jane's Fighters Anthology (I think that was the name).

[heywooood]

:kilroy: 49 yesterday....

il2 demo, Il2, Pacific Fighters, '46

Lomac, Flaming Cliffs, DCS Black Shark

FSXdemo, FSX Deluxe, Acceleration

Rise of Flight

since what...1998?

[Flyboy208]

I started flying real airplanes with my Dad around 9 or 10 ... Cessna 210's, Piper Aztecs and Bellanca Citabrias, the rest is History ...

Mike :jump:

[glennc]

Earned my real Private Pilot Certificate when I was 18 or 19. Long story very short, started flying MSFS at Version 2, maybe 10 or 12 years later to feed the habit I couldn't do for real, turned 62 a few days ago. I am very happy to see the new guys and gals coming into the hobby/addiction at a young age. :engel016:

Glenn

[Kiwikat]

I've been simming since I was about 7 or 8. 21 now... yikes I'm starting to feel old! :isadizzy:

Haha Glenn, it is indeed an addiction. :monkies:

[DB93]

For me, my first sim experience started with MSFS 5.0, so it's been around 15 years for me that I've been simming. I always had an interest in planes since I was a kid, building models and the like, and once I discovered FS, I was hooked. I'm 39 now, and will be 40 in about a month and a half.

[falcon409]

Started around 1998 or so (Flight Unlimited/Pro-Pilot), turned 62 this past April.

[Smokey Joe]

It's really a delight to see young people getting involved with flight simming. :applause: Sometimes I fear it will become the domain of us old f****. I started back in 1985. I upgraded my 4 Khz 8088 with an NEC V20 CPU chip which brought my computer to a screaming 8 Khz with 384K of RAM. That was FS3 which was pretty pitiful. FS4 was almost tolerable, but still absurdly two-dimensional. I'm 58 now and running FSX on a quad. Significant improvement. :ernae:

[letsgetrowdy]

I'm 15!!!!

[ManuelL]

I started with this sim
http://www.thelegacy.de/pics/screen/b/Boeing_727_Simulator.gif
- and a bit later with FS2 (I'm 36 now). As you can see there have only been very minor improvements in grafics since then ;)

[Francois]

Notwithstanding some of the replies here, research has shown that the AVERAGE age of flightsimmers is over 50... and going UP..... :icon_lol:

[jankees]

I'm still young then....

edit: but forgot to tell about the past: first started simming on a silicon graphics workstation in the early '90's, no idea what program that was, but it looked a bit like FS4.
Later enjoyed shooting at everybody in European Air War, B-17 and CFS1, moved to FS9 and discovered paintbrushes...
No pilots license, but my first flight ever was in a Harvard (and the second in a Tiger Moth..)

[txnetcop]

Edging up on 60 now but started flightsimming on Bruce Artwick's Flight Simulator for 1982 IBM in 1984. I became a beta tester for Sublogic since I lived in Urbana-Champaign at the time.

I got my PPL in 1982 and Bruce wanted real pilots to test it. I was 34 at the time I started flightsimming, but I was accused of being 12 years old by my wife at the time. She thought it was silly for a grown man to get excited by a bunch of moving lines on a screen.

See picture 1 to get an idea of how it looked at the time. I could hardly wait for each new release. Proud to say I have been hooked ever since day one!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Flight_Simulator
Ted
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[Mathias]

I began flight simming in 1999 using the original CFS and FS2000.
45 now.

[jankees]

...but I was accused of being 12 years old by my wife at the time. She thought it was silly for a grown man to get excited by a bunch of moving lines on a screen.


what are you doing with my wife??
or are they all like that?

[empeck]

30, I've started with Gunship and Fighter Bomber on C-64 ;)

[kilo delta]

I've been hooked on virtual flying since the early 80's too...ZX Spectrum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UTyyps_cCk

and Commodore 64's Harrier Attack

http://homepages.tesco.net/~parsonsp/html/harrier_attack.html.

Since then I've flown Flight Unlimited, FS98,FS2000, Il-2 series, Falcon 4.0/AF,X-Plane,Ms CFS series, LOMAC, FS9 etc etc........and now FSX :bump:

[JoeW]

I started with Bruces program too. 84? ....... don't remember. I'm 72 now. ........ If my math is right.

[Snuffy]

Shortly after I bought my IBM XT ... 1986, so lessee ... ummm 23 years of just simming.

[txnetcop]

what are you doing with my wife??
or are they all like that?

Hey I gave her back as soon as I could! I got lucky...now I have one that will fly with me! txnetwife WOOOOHOOOO!
Ted

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[jdhaenens]

Geez...I'm the new kid on the block. I started three or four years ago on FS 2004. I'm 53 now, but claim 39 at the outside (yeah...old enough to remember Jack Benny...sigh).

Jim

[jmig]

As my signature byline says, my first sim was the Link Trainer. My dad was a Civil Air Patrol volunteer and they had one at the facility. I was about seven then.

My first airplane flight was one or two years earlier with my dad and a CAP friend of his. I started flying while 16-17 and after college and AFROTC went to pilot training.

I started dabbling in Flight Sims in the early eighties. I remember boring almost to death a dinner guest by showing him flight sim on my IBM suitcase portable with its 7" yellow screen. I can still remember the little stick buildings. :icon_lol:

I got serious about flight simming around 2000 when I started flying myself for my business. I found FS-2000 to be a good way to practice business flights and possible approaches.

I lost my medical in 2003. Tried once to get it back but decided all the BS the FAA kept asking for wasn't worth it any longer. Ever since then flight simming has been my only form of flying. Although, I will get on an airliner when it is absolutely necessary and more than a 1000 miles from where I want to go.

I am 61 and will be 62 on Dec. 25th.

[jmig]

:kilroy: 49 yesterday....

il2 demo, Il2, Pacific Fighters, '46

Lomac, Flaming Cliffs, DCS Black Shark

FSXdemo, FSX Deluxe, Acceleration

Rise of Flight

since what...1998?


Dang I didn't see that it was your birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEYWOOOD!!

One day removed :)

[Cazzie]

Started building plastic models in 1958 at age 11 going on 12. Still build them. Was nearly 40 when my brother got the first Flight Simulator. Didn't do nothing for me. Only after he got FS98 did I become a dedicated simmer. I was 52 then. I'm 63 now and very well addicted to FS9 and FSX. :icon_lol:

It's a good indoor recreation for an old man and a great learning tool for men and women of all ages. If they used Flight Simulator to teach geography, I bet a lot more students would pay attention. Flight Simulator and Orbiter are two essential programs when I give seminars to Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts locally.

Caz

[Lotus]

I can't think of any other 'game' with an enthusiastic fanbase that spans such an age range, it's awesome.

Started at 11 years old with FS 2.0, and nearly failed grade 10 from doing IFR instead of homework. Still hooked 23 years later. :)

-Mike

[WarHorse47]

If you combine Snuffy's and Cassie's post, that's me. :icon_lol:

Started building scale models in the 50's before I became a teenager. Started simming in the early 80's raight after we got our first PC for home.

--WH

[heywooood]

Dang I didn't see that it was your birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEYWOOOD!!

One day removed :)


Thank you, John :ernae:...just doing my part to bump up that average haha

[Wombat_VC]

Started with this:

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/5/915435_28322_front.jpg

[Chacha]

Hannah, my daughter is 8. She started simming February 2008... My competition, she flies better than me... I crash all the time, especially when a mountain or a building suddenly pops on my way.... I burn tires on landing and probably burned a dozen aircraft's belly....

I encourage her to this little learning how to fly on sim, and other kids (my friends kids who are interested)... Mark, who is also 8, loves flying as well, but has a very short temper when he could not let the aircraft do what he wanted to do....

This was taken at the Fantasy Of Flight ..... :applause:

[Matt Wynn]

Started in 1998, when i was 10 or so and still wanted to be a pilot... things changed and i ended up flying real world.. wait does a Parachute count as flying? first sim was Flight Sim 98.... ahhh Meigs... thems were the good days, IL2 (All expansions), Falcon 4.0, FS2000, FS2002,FS2004 and now FSX although my FSX Pc met an explosive end after blue screening me on a very bad day.... :icon_lol: yeah average age now of the simmer i'd put at around 50/52, and Lotus it's great to see the young and old working and flying together, gives a feeling of simming solidarity... :ernae:

[italoc]

I don't know ....
I don't remember ......
I don't ....... what was the question ???:pop4:
:ernae:

Italo

[txnetcop]

Thank you, John :ernae:...just doing my part to bump up that average haha

Sorry Heywood I didn't notice earlier Happy Birthday Amigo Hope it's your best one yet...here ya go I baked ya cake! :birthday2
Ted
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[THibben]

Started with wire frame mountains and and a couple of lines for the runway. Probably very early 80's. I am always looking forward to the latest state of the art release. Will be 76 in 2 weeks.

Tom

[papab]

Hannah, my daughter is 8. She started simming February 2008... My competition, she flies better than me... I crash all the time, especially when a mountain or a building suddenly pops on my way.... I burn tires on landing and probably burned a dozen aircraft's belly....

I encourage her to this little learning how to fly on sim, and other kids (my friends kids who are interested)... Mark, who is also 8, loves flying as well, but has a very short temper when he could not let the aircraft do what he wanted to do....

This was taken at the Fantasy Of Flight ..... :applause:

Hey Chacha, I live in Tampa and drive past Fantasy Of Flight all the time
Is it worth the $$ to take a tour?

Here is a picture of the Connie outside FOF
Someone donated gallons of house paint to use on this bird....

[Dain Arns]

Let's see. Actually flying ultralights came first, one of these type linked here, which is now a display in the EAA Museum. (Wow that can make you feel old when you find that out!)

http://www.airventuremuseum.org/collection/aircraft/Eipper-Burgher%20Quicksilver%20MX-1.asp

I think it was FS3 or FS4 I started with. Favorites, surprised no one has mentioned these yet, definitely Red Baron and Red Baron II. Heavily played Aces over Europe and Aces Over Pacific. Apache the Combat Helicopter Flight Simulator, Tornado, Strike Commander, F-14 Fleet Defender, and any Jane's.

First plane I built was for FS5 was the Spirit of St. Louis. Posted 6-27-1996 on Flightsim.com at a whopping 663kb! It's still there! :icon_lol:

Enough about me...


<------- Age? Right about there, somewhere. :icon_lol:

[Chacha]

Hey Papab!

Fantasy Of Flight entrance was $25, I guess, they have senior discount which I did not qualify yet.... Short of a few inches :icon_lol: they honor AAA discounts as well.... There are Simming stations there.... A lot of kids, from as young as 5 and adults as old as 95, maybe, come and visit.... and sim.... and look around and learn about restoring aircraft... There are a lot to see... very educational to see the history of these aircraft...

http://sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=21768&highlight=Fantasy+Flight

Attach is the schedule... (oops sorry guys... back to the topic) :pop4:

[BOOM]

:applause:HAPPY B-DAY HEYWOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sorry I missed you yesterday bud!!!!

I started about 10 yrs ago with Commanche on a Mac(it was a slide show) then I bought a desent PC and got a Novalogic/Jane's bundle with Mig29/F-15,then I bought Janes F/A-18 SuperHornet and I was HOOKED!!!:ernae:
45yrs young now!

[Mr.Mugel]

I´m 20 now, don´t exactly know how old I was when I started... must have been some years now, I guess I started in the later part of the 90ies...

When I was about 8 I had my first own R/C plane... An old electric powered motor glider, with V-Tail... Went down when I couldn´t see that I was going down allready at about 400 feet, pushed a little more and that was when the wings decided they were old enough to go their own ways...

[JorisVandenBerghe]

Started at 7, with good old Flight Unlimited II. Then moved on to the arcade game Crimson Skies (first version) which was rather buggy but a lovely game overall. That's where I got my love for old combat aircraft from. Then CFS3, eventually moving on to FSX...

18 now, will be 19 within about three months.

[CBris]

Oh dear.... I started simming before some of you were even at the yoghurt stage ;)

The first simulator I sat in was a Link simulator around 40 years ago and I was "Eagleskinnering" even then. (I had the "plotter" digging trenches along the map table and the instructor saying things like "You are NOT a submarine!")

But get me up in a plane or a sim, then my years disappear and I am still a teen with the wind in my feathers. You younger simmers have sooo much to enjoy and look forward to and I am already at the popcorn stage.

:)

[OBIO]

First flight sim was way back in 1984...don't recall the name of it. It had one plane. Took two joysticks to fly it on my Radio Shack Color Computer II with 16K memory, a floppy drive the size of a Beagle, and a dot matrix printer the size of a Ford Pinto. I was 15 and had a headful of the most beautiful near-black hair.

Now I am 40 with a headful of some near-black hair and a lot of near-silver hair...but my back is covered in a luxurious carpet of the blackest hair you have ever laid your eyes upon LOL! Getting old SUCKS!

I now fly FS2004 mostly, some CFS2 when the mood hits. I think I spend more time painting and tweaking planes than I spend flying them...so I really don't have a flight simulator, I have an Aircraft Maintenance Simulator.

OBIO

[Reddog]

Don't remember the year I started but it was with a 486 cp and Air Warriors2 after that most of the combat sims till I got FS98 and the rest of them and now flying FSX. Was a real world pilot for a will till it got to expensive to do it just for fun. I'm 73 now and still doing it every day.:icon_lol:

[limjack]

looking back its all kind of fuzzy now:isadizzy: but I started I believe in 1984...22 years old ( I am now 47 so that is 25 years of simming ......if my math is right. My computers were always slow, I never had the money to get a computer that could run flight sim the way it was intended until now. Still have all my programs tucked away in a box except the first one that I gave away with my commodore 64 (wish I could get it back now).

Jim

[Marvin Carter]

CFS1 and Crimsin sky, about 16 years. "57"

[Bomber_12th]

I went over to a friend's house to play football one night when I was 15, noticed a box for CFS1 on a desk in his house (which I had never heard of before) and it hasn't been the same since. :rolleyes:

[jmig]

I don't know ....
I don't remember ......
I don't ....... what was the question ???:pop4:
:ernae:

Italo

:icon_lol: Love it!

:icon29:

[huub vink]

I'm only 51 years old, but sometimes I still feel 16 ;)

Started with Red Baron and F29 Retaliator, switched to European Air War, tried CFS but preferred EAW, but when CFS2 was released went there, disliked and abandoned CFS3 and switched quite a while to IL2, moved to FS9 simultaneously, I fly FSX as well and made a switch back to a WW-I combat flightsim, but now Rise of Flight.

Cheers,
Huub

[hobofat]

Commodore 64 for me, though the first flight simulator I was truly obsessed with was on an Amiga 500. Forget the name of it though... I'm only 26 now, so must have been about 8 or 9 at the time. Growing up an Air Force brat was really nice though...lots of real planes to go see.

[viking3]

A friend loaned me FS2000 when I bought my first home computer 7 years ago, within weeks I had purchased FS2002 and have not looked back(CFS3, LOMAC, FS2004, FSX). I have worked in aviation as an avionics technician for 20+ years but now am off on long-term disability so the sim really helps me stay engaged in my favorite interest, aircraft of all shapes and sizes.

Regards, Rob:ernae:<-that's root beer for the young fellers.

[Alan_A]

Started in 1986 at age 26 with MSFS for Macintosh (the "fat" Mac, top-end model with 512k of RAM and an external floppy drive). Was thrilled to see that red package on the shelves - there was no warning about its coming out and I was convinced there'd never be a version of FS for the Mac.

I joined AVSIG at CompuServe and got together with another member on what might have been one of the early "networked" flights. By agreement, we entered local weather (by hand), then flew from our homes to Martha's Vineyard, met in CompuServe chat, then logged out, relaunched FS and flew home.

You could barely get the real pilots at AVSIG to talk about FS then. I once suggested they create a section for sim pilots and got turned down - they were afraid it would draw too many nonpilots into the forum.

Switched to the PC with FS 4.0 in 1989. Been simming in one form or another ever since, except for a brief hiatus around FS 2000.

I'll turn 50 in February and will probably celebrate with a Cub flight someplace, probably in the FTX Pacific Northwest.

[IanP]

My first "civvy" flight sim was Solo Flight on the C64... 1985 or thereabouts? I also had Dambusters on 5.25" FD, F-19 Stealth Fighter on two C90 cassettes (AAARGH! Finding a http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk/notfair.gif mission was hard with a http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk/notfair.gif tape deck http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk/notfair.gif counter to http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk/notfair.gif work with!!!!), Gunship, etc. Finally worked out what an ILS was using Thalion's A320 series on the Amiga and joined the MSFS world with FS4 and 5, pretty much within weeks of each other. Tried to make the paper plane when Flight Sim Flight Shop was released. Failed. Tried to make a Jet Provost when FS2002 was released. Failed. Gave up trying to make aircraft.

But I made a church over the last week! :wiggle: (Mainly on Monday because it was the day after my birthday and I refused to get up for work, so booked it as annual leave...)

Got my PPL about twelve or so years ago, medical ran out about four years ago, got my license signed back off about two months ago. Currently wondering what the blithering flippitts to do with it, other than go around in circles for an hour in a hired C152, because that's about all I can afford.

This dratted sim keeps stealing all my money! :173go1::engel016::icon_lol:

[Bjoern]

First sims: Top Gun: Fire At Will, Grand Prix 2, FS4 in 1996.
Then FS98, FS2002, FS9, FSX plus some military sims.

Age: See left. 1986 was a "shining" year. Ha.

[Cazzie]

I'm only 51 years old, but sometimes I still feel 16 ;)

Cheers,
Huub

Careful how you do that Huub, the last time I tried to find my youth, I dang near lost my old age! :icon_lol:

Happy Birthday Heywood! :icon29:

Caz

[ryanbatc]

Started with FS5.0, kept upgrading from there. Obtained PPL ASEL @ 20. Became air traffic controller at 24. Now 26.

[robcap]

I'm like Dain Arns

I also started with FS3 or FS4. Even earlier, with the B/W WW1 combat theatre in FS. Heavily played Aces over Europe, B17 Flying Fortres (big time:jump:), Apache, Falcon 4.0 and GP 1 and 2.

First thing I built was for FS2000: a panel including an updated plane, gauge set and flightmodel for the DC2 UIVER in 2000 (Not all by myself, I must add, I had a lot of help from some great FS folks).
I wanted to fly a DC2 from Londen to Melbourne. What a heroic and historic tale that race was, as was the history of the developement of air travel between the 2 world wars. Actually , it's history that really got me started on FS.
I continued to work on the DC2 for FS9 and recently for FSX. Ofcourse with a great team I can call friends now.:medals::medals::icon_lol::icon_lol:
I have to say, I didn't make it to Melbourne yet :kilroy:

Cheers, Rob

[Navy Chief]

56 here...

NC

[modelr]

Started plastic models early teens, then on to U-control, (roundy-rounds.) Moved up to Radio Control in '81, then got my ultralite, an Eipper Quicksilver MX1, like Dairn's, loved that bird. Learned about computers and started simming in '95. Bought 'em all. Just have FS9 and FSX loaded, now, along with my R/C simulator, Real Flight G4.5, which I use to train new R/c Pilots and learn new maneuvers on. I'll be 61 in three weeks.

[dhl1986]

I'm 23. Aviation has been the only thing I have cared about since I was old enough to know what a plane was. I am currently working on my PPL at KLZU. I started FSX to help ease the pain of time between flights, and I have loved every second of it. It is excellent for certain aspects of training, and overall I think it has made be a better student pilot.

I am thinking of continuing my flight training after I get my PPL, possibly going for a CFI rating and making a career out of it.

[heywooood]

Thanks to Texnet, Boom and Cazzie...:icon29:

[Sixghost]

25 here, started at the age of 6 with F29 Retaliator from Ocean with my first pc. As time went by I played mostly everything but I have fond memories of CFS1/2/3, F15 Strike Eagle II, EF2000 by DID, TAW, Comanche 2/3, USNF '97, Chuck Yeager Air Combat...aaah those were the days!:engel016:

I now build neverware for FSX and fly in Il2 46 as a member and server admin of one of the biggest squads of the lobby.:kilroy:

Desperately looking for something new, SoW:BoB or FighterOps, whichever comes first.:engel016:

[b52bob]

many years and pounds ago on the Atari 800 and then the Amiga (one of the best computers ever made)

Bob

[paiken]

Started in 1984 with FS2 for the Apple IIc. Still have the computer and dot matrix printer. Flew off and on until the late 80's, then got caught up in child rearing. Picked up again with FS 95, 2000, FS9, and FSX. 49 years old.

[Wingmate]

16 started around 5

[moore1018]

Cool thread. I just turned 40 this year (ouch). Does Atari Combat (1980) count for a first flight simulator? :) I used to take both Atari controllers and try to fly the planes in formation. Now with FSX and FS Recorder I'm still doing the same thing nearly 30 years later. Looks alot better now though.

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/8894/snag0073.jpg

[kilo delta]

Cool thread. I just turned 40 this year (ouch). Does Atari Combat (1980) count for a first flight simulator? :) I used to take both Atari controllers and try to fly the planes in formation. Now with FSX and FS Recorder I'm still doing the same thing nearly 30 years later. Looks alot better now though.

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/8894/snag0073.jpg

Are they the REX HD cloud textures?




:icon_lol::running:

[moore1018]

Are they the REX HD cloud textures?



Yes, but apparently I forgot to turn anti-aliasing on. ;)

[HeyChief]

68 here, I always wanted to be a pilot, but my eyes weren't good enough for the service.
Was extatic when I bought my first computer and found out there were flight sims for it. Mostly combat flightsims.
Started out with CFS & CFS2, then all the FS's till X. So, now I'm a pilot, virtually.:icon_lol:

[crashaz]

42 here... been simming since I was 17.... when flying over 2D WWI airfields and hiding behind the 2D mountains from the AI.

[Ferry_vO]

On my Commodore C64 I had F-15 Strike Eagle when I was about ten or twelve IIRC.. Blue was the sky, green the ground and any black specs you had to shoot!
When I got my first PC I got DID's EF2000 from a friend and Later I bought Jane's ATF and USAF. I got into civil simming in 2000 after visiting my first airshow. Just out of curiosity I searched around a bit on the net and found it was possible to fly a lot more than Boeings and Cessnas in FS!
Got Fs2000, '02,'04,CFS3, IL-2 and FsX since and have recently purchased Rise of Flight.

When I'm not flying high, I'm flying low in GTR2, GTR Evo or rFactor.

[flyinjake]

43 and still loving it... when I get a chance to fly.

[JTP]

68, started around 1998, good way to learn the computer. Also lots of Fun!