I’ve been a flight simmer and aviation enthusiast since mid 1980’s when a friend introduced me to Flight Simulator on his Commodore 64. One of my parents also worked at one of the local airlines, and as a child we flew to England several times on some very iconic aircraft including the DC-8, DC-10, and 747. Additionally my high school had an aviation program which I attended, but for reason didn’t pursue a career in, instead joining the navy and serving many enjoyable years.
During my time in the navy, I stepped away from flight simming while raising a small family and spending time at sea, but I never lost that passion for aviation. After some challenging times, which ended in a bitter divorce, another friend introduced me to FSX, and once again my enthusiasm for flight sim was reborn. I spent hours flying for different virtual airlines flying those same aircraft I did as a child. But never really learning how to fly them, I was always taxi, take-off autopilot, land, satisfaction guaranteed.
Then Flight Simulator (2020) dropped in the summer of 2020…. Everything changed. The scenery was so realistic, night and day compared to the pervious versions, or the competition. I started flying general aviation aircraft, and I was full hooked. I started doing the weekly community group flights, and joined The Pilot Club (www.thepilotclub.org) where real world pilots, and other enthusiasts grouped together to make flying online (VATSIM) more realistic. I started following the training program and watching any and all YouTube videos to learn as must as I could about how to actually fly. Then my current wife said, “you love to fly why not try it for real?” Mind blown, she got me a discovery flight for my 50th in 2023…
Actually flying a real airplane in a real sky blew my mind, and once again that passion exploded. I started flight training in February 2024, and Flight Simulator was a valuable tool I used to aid in my training. While the simulation has it quirks, and the flight model isn’t entirely accurate, I used it as a procedure trainer. Following the proper checklists, walking through stalls, slow flight, spins, and emergencies in the sim is far cheaper than doing in an aircraft with an instructor. I had only 10 hours when I did my solo, and received my PPL with the minimum number of hours. While I had an excellent instructor, who really pushed my limits, I genuinely believe that Flight Simulator gave me the extra “ground” training to succeed.
I received my PPL in June of the same year and have just received my CPL today. We live in amazing times, the hobby is growing, flight in VR is as close to real life as one can get without using a Level-D simulator, and while Flight Sim has had some “issues” with 2024, the team at Asobo is as passionate about this hobby and continues to work hard at getting it right.
I want to thank the Asobo team for building this amazing platform, all the 3rd party developers who has worked so hard on their various projects, The Pilot Club and my most important supporter, my wife for helping me to realize that we can pursue lifelong dreams at any age.
