Am I the "Oldest Flightsimmer"?

I am 72.
My brother is 91. Still simming .
Both simming since Sublogic days on CBM64

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Thatā€™s intersting, thanks. I have been using a cheap mic, but have a good headset with mic on a boom and will try that later. I did spend a lot of time doing the Windows voice training and got that bit pretty right.

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Welcome to the forum! Itā€™s great to see young people like yourself along with the older simmers! Makes it a diverse place for all to enjoy!

ā– ā– ā– ā–  OP you were alive when Hitler was having his war, youā€™re truly a fossil.

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Hi there. Not sure your message was meant for me as Iā€™m not sure Iā€™m such a hard core simmer as all that but best of luck with your Oculus.

62, just a kid compared to manyā€¦such a great read on this thread. Iā€™m not a frequent poster, and Iā€™m sure there are lots of us out there. Enjoyed reading all the posts, thanks to those who have shared.

I remember passing by the computer game section at Circuit City, (and other places) after buying our first computer (about $3,000 for a 20 gig and a dial up modem), but after eyeing MSFS95 many times, I finally bought it.

I recall loading it, clicking on the default flight, finding myself on the runway at Megā€™s, then wondering ā€œwhat now?ā€ and trying to figure out how to ā€œfly this thingā€. After fiddling around with the keyboard, and searching the manual, after 30 minutes or so, I managed to figure out how to get airborne and, naturally, flew it straight into Hancock Tower!

Immediately bought each update up to FSX, and then went several years without ā€œflyingā€ until my now grown daughter called and declared ā€œDad! A new FS is coming out soon! You should get it!ā€ I checked out the website and was thrilled with what I saw and immediately pre-ordered.

Iā€™m so pleased to be back in the skyā€™s and amazed that I am able to find, and recognize my own house, office building etc! And so much more compared to that first take-off from Meigs!

Thanks so much Asobo and Microsoft!

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Been meaning to comment, the Ercoupe looks almost small enough that you could have tried it on the Soap Box Derby. :rofl:

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Itā€™s your brain and middle ear getting confused. Your eyes tell your brain you are moving up and down, etc. And you are moving forward. Your middle ear says ā€œnope, nothing going on here. All quiet. Sitting down. We ainā€™t moving broā€.
I would guess that if you get ill with VR taking one of those travel sickness tablets might help.
Ofcourse, chances are you will fall a sleep at the yoke !:crazy_face:

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Iā€™m 49 and a retired real life pilot myself, had to retire because of medical reasons but I still fly sometime in real life just not long flights anymore. I live in The Netherlands but also lived in the US for a long time, I have Flown Caro and Passenger transport flights in Alaska a lot specifically with the Beaver a lot, happy to see this beautiful plane in the sim now. I been Flight Simming since the first MSFS in 1982 when I was 9 years old and been enjoying Flight Simulator ever since then.

Love this thread, great to see so many Flight Simmers and real life pilots of different ages.

Happy Flight Simming everyone

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My doctor says I need a scan. I think he means a ā€œSenior Citizenā€™s Afternoon Napā€ doesnā€™t he?

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Thatā€™s hilarious! Extra 2 points for that one! Does falling asleep while waiting for the update to load count also?
I just got home from flying my Skylane ā€¦another 1.5 hours on the hobbs meter, and now current for my instrument rating for the next 6 monthsā€¦came homeā€¦turned on my computerā€¦launched msfsā€¦update hitsā€¦and fell asleep!
Butā€¦alas!.. Itā€™s nice to wake up and itā€™s finished ready to fly without a CTD!!!
IM still hashing through my brain how technology has changed so much in my lifetime. In college we used a ā€œslide ruleā€ā€¦I wonder how many ā€œyounger than usā€ sim and real pilots even know what that is? I still use my hand held holding pattern computer when practicing IFR on msfsā€¦yes itā€™s called a ā€œcomputerā€ā€¦plastic and is getting a little more yellowish every monthā€¦no ram or cpuā€¦but to us older folksā€¦this was really cool! Almost as cool as my ā€œIdeal mobileā€ I received for Christmas one year (thatā€™s worth a Google for you youngling jedi pilots out there).
What truly amazes me is I can fly my Skylaneā€¦still learning all the new stuff from my new NXI upgradeā€¦and come home and fly the exact same approaches on my computer in msfsā€¦ and how realistic it looks, and feels. And I can analyze what I should have done better this morningā€¦the Redbird tower changed runways on me on final because a newbe decided to taxi on the runway instead of the taxiwayā€¦and I literally blew the approach and had to go missed.
So I have lived long enough to screw up a real instrument approach and then come home and fly it on my own computer ā€¦ instead of sitting listening to a CFII at the FBO afterwardsā€¦really cool!

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Iā€™m 62 and started real life flight training in 1983 after flying FS on an Apple II+. I have flown every version since. Using my HP Reverb G2 in MSFS2020 is the best surrogate to real flying, and for me thereā€™s no better reason to turn om my computer.

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Me neither, but I did get in a Martin Mariner.

Aw, ArranSpring, ya got me beat, just when I thought Iā€™d never again encounter anyone older than I!
My interest in aviation came from my my dad, also. He was the command pilot of an 8th AF B-17, 25 missions over Germany and occupied Europe in 1943. I was born in a USAAF hospital in Massachusetts 17 days before FDR died and about 5 weeks before Hitler did (a little knowledge of WWII history and arithmetic will tell you my age).
I stayed in the AF Reserve until the afternoon before I turned 60 (age of mandatory separation) just because in the Medical Corps I couldnā€™t come close to the service he gave. I tried to make length of service compensate for heroism, but it cannot.
My interest in MFS started in the early 1990s and continued very sporadically for a few years, but it came back with a vengeance in 2020. At that time, parts for a new cutting-edge PC build were pathetically hard to come by ā€“ even the case took me 6+ weeks to get, and I had to start with Ryzen 5 3200 and RX 570 placeholders ā€“ all I could get at the time without supporting scalpers. The rig is now:
Ryzen 7 5800X3D
64 GB
RTX 3080 10GB
1TB M.2 SSD X 2
Honeycomb Alpha/Bravo, Logitech pedals
34" 1440 widescreen and 2 touchscreens for Air Manager instruments
Reverb G2, which I got mainly because it was $200 off and havenā€™t gotten around to implementing yet

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You youngsters and your gadgets! In Inorganic Quantitative Analysis, I was required by an aging prof to calculate my answers with 5-digit logarithms. There was a little method to his madness. That was more precise than a slide rule but it was precision that, in truth, was not scientifically allowed by the lesser precision of our measurements.

Your Dad was one of the lucky ones, as you are well aware, being USAF. During that period the chances of completing 25 were almost nil. My cousin, tail gunner on B-17 was shot down on his 4th or 5th and captured in 1943.

Great story Timeworn . . . thanks for your service and I know once you plug in that Reverb G2, youā€™ll really be hooked!!

You got me beat by 20+ years!! Keep on flying!!

Iā€™ve understood how lucky Dad was since I was old enough to remember. This gets so far off topic that the mods might object, but thereā€™s more to that survival story. Not everyone on an aircrew was necessarily on the same mission number. Dadā€™s bombardier flew two extra missions filling in for other bombardiers who were unavailable. Dad had flown 1 more than the rest of the crew. He flew #25 without his own bombardier. The rest of the crew had one more mission after Dad finished, flown with a new pilot. The plane was lost on their 25th ā€“ no survivors. I donā€™t think Dad had classical survivorā€™s guilt, but I heard him mutter on a few occasions, ā€œI always thought I couldā€™ve gotten those guys back.ā€ He and his bombardier were the only guys on their crew to get through the war alive. Both lived to the age of 98. They stayed in touch for the following 74 years and passed away within 6 months of each other in 2017. When they were together, they were joyful, and no one ever heard either of them mention the war

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Wishing all of you pilotsā€¦Both young and old (like me)ā€¦a Happy Thanksgiving!

OHā€¦ For desert tomorrow try an off shore delicacy with that sweet oily tasteā€¦Aerosoftā€™s off shore industries will be available for download! Your H145 will love you for it!

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