At 50… covid locked in my house all year with nothing else to do.
Learning to fly in Msfs was a wonderful intellectual challenge.
Unfortunately life is getting busy again so only fly a bit on the weekends now.
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C64, Sublogic Flight Simulator at around age 14 or 15.
Our family had spend a number of holidays involving airline travels from my age 7 onwards, and my brother and I were enroled in the “Lufthansa Junior Services” programme, which e.g. made us visit the flight deck on flights, where the Captain would fill out our on personal logbook. We kind of were collecting “miles” (or flights rather in our logbook), long before mile-programmes were invented. Also part of my wider family were Lufthansa people (in Sales, Flight Attendant, Public Relations, later a Captain).
I must have been hooked on aviation since these early days. Of course I went through a history of flight simulators, got a paraglider license and PPL ASE land and sea later and am now a VR flyer.
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Airshows, since before I could walk and while they were still called Battle of Britain day.
Age 8, I sat on a crash gate at RAF Wattisham and watched a Lightning perform a rotation take-off and rocket out of sight almost vertically, felt it as he broke the sound barrier on the way..
When I left school and did an Aeronautical apprenticeship and had the pleasure of working on some beautiful Aircraft. I have spent 30 years of my life with just two types..
Flight sims, age 58, just to get out of the house in Lockdown. Mainly in GA.
I tend to fly on week nights after work, as I spend most of time with my girlfriend on weekends.
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been interested in aviation since i can remember, my childhood home was under the final approach to rwy 26R (25R then) at klgb so i just remember GA planes flying over at all times at like 500agl
my dad had a multi band radio so we could listen to the atc, etc… we flew seems like often as a family to ksfo (psa 727’s i think) and more interestingly, the grumman g21’s to catalina island
first flight sim was sublogic fs2 on commdore 64 i was like 9 yrs old (~1984 or so) i had it rigged up eventually with dual atari joysticks for true hotas action!!
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I became interested as a young child, back when we still had ABM’s mounted in plain site, and the sounds of sonic booms roared over head. My dad a MAC airforce pilot and my uncle A B-52 SAC commander, along with a bunch of other AF personnel had bought a decommissioned B52 sim from the govt, and had it setup and running in an undisclosed location. Every couple of months they would spirit us away to the sim along with other AF involved with the project, and taught us every seat in the plane running simulated attacks against a real time enemy. These sessions lasted for hours upon end.
By the time I was 16 I was technically a qualified B52 pilot (uncle used to joke that when the S*** hit the fan it would be up to us kids to retaliate). I started PC siming with the 1st pc based sim and havent gone back.
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Too early to understand any of it fully. It’s only later in life that this interest was re-kindled.
Aviation in general, 4 years old
Simming at 11, starting with FS 2.0
Serious (IFR) simming at 14 (almost failed grade 9 because of FS 3.0 haha)
PPL at 23.
Well, i wanted to be a helicopter pilot when i was a kid, but due to my lazy eye operation at age 4 or 5, it was not allowed at the time to become a militairy aviator… whereas now even people with glasses are allowed. sigh 
So, been interested from a young age, started flightsimming with Flight simulator 3.0 at around age 15 ish, i’m now 46 and enjoying this new one tremendously. Also love the community here, always helping eachother, even though the ones aquiring help do not always seems to friendly with their wordings. Guess we live in a “HELPHELPHELPHELP” instead of “i need some help, PLeasE” time. But luckely, those with the knowledge, skills and social mindset are aplenty around here. So thank you back to the community, for even helping this old novice out from time to time by answering the help wanted-ads in this forum 
( been finding answers by simply browsing the forum or actually using the search-option properly before i ask a question, so, thank you all out there!)
Much appreciated!
Woof ~ Woof & Salute!
Steiny
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Hum maybe 5 years ago, probably around 60, yes a late committer before I played a lot of car racing games…can’t quite remember, always liked aviation, astronautic and astronomy and I am a bit of a buff about WWII, so I started with simulation games on WWII flying games, some more arcade like than simulation and then started with the previous Microsoft game, version X I think, then came VR (for me) a year ago, now I am spending equal time between IL Sturmovik, FS2020 and others simulation apps like Xplane and Aerofly FS2, and also Space Engine, flying a spacecraft…, I am still using lot of ‘automatic’ or helped mode, but getting more into more difficult levels, can’t wait for full retirement…
I had just turned 7 years old at the release of fs2004, my grandad bought a copy which had the four discs to install it all on an ancient Packard Bell computer, windows XP, floppy drive slot, the lot. I used to fly about in the Cessna aircraft as I had no idea how to properly control an aircraft using a keyboard and mouse. I spent hours making the same mistakes over and over again but I enjoyed every minute of it. Nowadays I’m sitting currently en route to Ibiza from Glasgow on msfs 2020 with a custom built pc with the best of what I could find during the shortages. So after all of that, I’m now 24 so I’ve had on or about 17 years worth of flying time on systems from the ones mentioned above to laptops, college computers, a barebones pc with no case lying inside a drawer with holes for wiring and ventilation cut at one point, enjoyed every minute of it, 10/10 would do it again.
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I started flight simming on an IBM PCjr in 1982 when I was 11 with Sublogic Flight sim 1.0 and then Microsoft flight sim 1.0 (I still have the 5 1/4" Floppy it came on!) From there I flew every version of MSFS since it was released. I also flew ATC pilot, Falcon 4.0, F-15, and a few others throughout the years. I joined the U.S. Air Force and continued my interest in aviation with some flights at the Aeroclub in C-152 and C-172. I got my PPL in 2008, and then attended Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and got my degree in Professional Aeronautics. Now I fly MSFS, P3D mostly and hang out with you all in here!
I was about 25, 44 years ago.
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I must have been about 4 when my Dad took me to my first airshow, HOOKED! I won’t reveal my age, but shortly after that a crude type of Flight Simulator was released, not video but it had a plastic Cessna that you would string with fishing line attached to a chairback which was then attached to a joystick on the floor (I can’t remember the name of it, You Fly It perhaps?) as a 9 year old I spent countless hours entertaining myself! I’ve owned a copy of MS flight simulator ever since yet I’ve always preferred watching aircraft as opposed to doing the actual flying and that’s why I am patiently waiting for “Tower View” to be implemented into this fine sim!
“Jumbo” BBC Micro 1982
I honestly can’t remember when i started flight sims. Single digit age for sure, spent plenty of time in FS98 taking the jetranger around downtown Manhattan and landing on top the World Trade Center.
I recall getting angry when i played with the 747 in a later game (FS2004 maybe?) because I did not understand how commercial planes flew and that 250 knots at 35,000 feet is the same as 480 knots on the ground. I kept trying to get the plane to “go faster” which resulted in me rage quitting because the plane was “too slow.” No younger me, the plane is just fine. You just a dummy…
Lol D U M M Y is censored lol
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It must have been around 1987, SubLogic Flight Simulator on an Amiga 2000, so I would have been what? … 32 at the time.
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When I am ten years old and got my first googles I decide to become an pilot rather than an sailor. My simple idea was it must be much better to unintentionally lose my googles in an cockpit the on the reeling of an boat. Clever, heh?
But I never become an real life pilot.
So I went to simulation late 80’s on my C64.
In the late 1980s when I was in my early 20s. Got certificated as a pilot when I was in my 30s.
I was around four years old when I first got really interested in aviation, I started simming in 1994, I was lucky enough to experience a full motion DC 10 simulator at age ten in Karachi, Pakistan. That was back in 1977-1978. I have been flight simming as a hobby ever since FS 2004 came out, Level D Simulations, PMDG. After that FSX was the standard, looked great with a lot of add-ons. X-Plane was my next challenge all to be topped by this (sometimes) great looking simulator. I never made it into aviation professionally, but I fly gliders with passion.
Cheers, Marc
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don’t remember, but first simulator was in picture palace slot machines, and there sea fight when you made torpedo away to the targets, but that wasn’t first time i really interested in aviation simming, but when i saw one video clip of adriano celentano, where was view from digital modern age fighter, then i thought to my self, yeah, i want to be in a game like this… i guess it was 1988-1990 i don’t… never saw that clip again. i was 14-16 may be