Hi there, At what age did you guys start getting interested in Simming and Aviation? TIA..
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Too old to parlay the interest into an aviation career 
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In aviation, when I first looked at the sky. Simming was when Bruce Artwick published Sublogic Flight Simulator.
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I was like 13 or so when FSX was released and I begged my parents to get it for me. I begged them again to buy the Acceleration expansion pack once that came out too, lol.
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I was 8 years old playing Chuck Yeager Air Combat on a floppy/hard disk and F22 on Sega.
Flight Simming was very influential for me in life, as later I joined the Air Force at 18.
Never pursued a pilot career, but I’m in a career dealing with aircraft on the unfortunate side of things going snap, crackle, pop and boom while contacting the earth’s surface.
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Aviation 6
Simulation 12
PPL 18
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Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to fly until later on in life. I started with the company I am with now back in 2008 when I was 24 and was on a few flights weekly.
It was then that I got hooked and was fascinated by the entire experience from arriving at the airport, going through check in, security, watching the ground crews and planes as I waited to board and then of course my flight itself.
From that point, I always said if I had known at a younger age how much I love it I would have pursued it as a career and unfortunately didn’t see it for myself or have anyone close to me to help show that it still could have been a possibility.
Flash forward to today, I still get excited inside while enroute to the airport, or when I look up and see planes overhead. I pop open Flight Radar and see where they are coming from and where they are going to, etc…
As for simming, again, always had an interest just didn’t have the opportunity / means to get into it. As time went on other hobbies / interests took over, mainly waterfowl hunting.
As life stages changed I found less and less time for hunting as more of my time was being spent with the kids and their sports (mainly hockey as it falls during fowl season). It was at this time that MSFS was releasing and like others on here I thought, do I really want to shell out for a PC for MSFS? Maybe I should go the XBOX route.
So I purchased an XBOX Series X and a new 70" Samsung and waited for release. Downloaded as soon as it came out and started to fly and thought wow this is amazing! During the in-between time of purchasing the XBOX and waiting for release I found these forms and started to read everything I could and watching all the YouTube videos I could find.
I started VATSTAR ground school training etc…
I thought this is going to be the most amazing thing, and it was… for about 2 hours.
I found I got incredibly bored incredibly fast as playing on XBOX felt just like that, playing. Not being able to touch controls, peripherals, flip switches, it just didn’t do it for me personally. The limitation of addons, not being able to use VATSIM, etc… I just found it way to limiting.
Of course it was and still is in its infancy stage, I just wanted more.
So I made the decision that if I was going to be hunting fowl less and wanted to sim more, that I would sell one of my hunting boats and buy my sim rig and that’s what I did.
And it’s been an amazing journey with some awesome people on this forum!
So I f
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I think it started playing Ace of Aces on my Commodore 64 around 1986.
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I do the same!
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Had my ppl at 19. At 22 my original CFI saw my logbook and said I was flying just enough to kill myself. Gave it up.. 1st sim at around 30. 30 years now simming. I can afford to fly for real now at 61, I just won’t spend the $ on the increase for life insurance.
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I was 10 when Dad brought home a copy of Flight Sim 4 to use on our shiny new 286, that replaced our XT.
No joystick, learned to fly with the keyboard. tap tap tap tap tap…
Been on a small plane once when I was 5, and a few airliners from that age to when I got the sim.
That got me hooked into aviation. Remote control planes and a couple of scenic flights secured the hook firmly. 14 did a trial flight, started flight training when I was still in school, and after that working for 2 weeks to save up for a flight.
Got my first flying job just a bit before 9/11, and Ansett Airlines in Australia going bust. I didn’t fly commercially again until 2006. Lots of knocks on the way, but now I’m an A320 captain, and still simming…
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Living the dream!
Congrats!
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Ha!
Living the dream! Choosing to work for $200 per month, or be on leave without pay and be with my family. 
It’s a tough industry during downturns…
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Around 8 or 9, bit over 20 years ago now. Still remember my first taste of real flying too, had to sit on a bin to see over the glareshield in a 172, lol.
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Mid 1970’s on a flight from Bogota (Colombia) to Lima (Peru) - Avianca B727 classic, sitting side by side with my brother in the jump seat on descent and landing into Lima.
3 years old…?
Nah, around 10
My interest in aviation started with a flight in a Bell Model 47 when I was almost too young to remember. (I was in my Dad’s lap… times have changed, eh?)
I probably built every model of WWII fighter and bomber that Monogram or Revell made, and stayed home from school to watch every launch of a “space capsule” into orbit. I especially liked the B-58 Hustler because it was “the fastest” bomber in the SAC fleet. (My Dad was in the Air Force as was my Grandpa, back was it was still the “Army Air Corps”… so I guess it’s in my blood!)
I earned my private pilot’s license in 1978, flying both Pipers and Cessnas. I was part owner of four aircraft over the years: three Cessnas (a 150E, a 172G, and a 182M) plus a Piper Warrior II.
I started with Flight Simulation on a Macintosh, “flying” the original Falcon released by Spectrum Holobyte, and eventually MS Flight Sim when I switched to PCs in 1998. I started building computers about the same time, back when overclocking meant carefully cutting a trace or two on a circuit board to get the desired result.
We are incredibly lucky to have MSFS again, and the sophisticated hardware to run it… not to mention the high-bandwidth internet connectivity. And I think we’re especially lucky to have serious third-party developers like PMDG and MilViz - who never gave up - once again bringing stunningly realistic models to the sim for us to enjoy.
It’s pretty marvelous, and I’m quite Thankful for all of the above.
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Around 16 yo, playing with F22 and A10 Tank Killer. Then I switched to Flight Simulator when I was 20 and never played any war game since.
747 simulator
Acorn Electron
1984