When I was very young most of my interests involved airplanes and flying. I loved being a passenger on commercial aircraft. All my toys were airplanes etc. In the late 80’s when I was 10 years old I discovered on the IBM computer at my fathers auto parts store was MSFS. Best I can remember it was either 3.0 or 4.0. From the and thru high school almost all my free time was spent on MSFs and Falcon 3.0. I applied to the airforce academy but did not get in. I did get a full scholarship to embry riddle. In 1994 my eye sight disqualified me from a first class medical. I got a degree in computer science and for the next 20 years thought my only flying would ever be on the thousands of hours of flight simulator. Real world flight training and renting an aircraft were complelty out of the question in my financial reality. At the age of 47, and after 25 years in the software industry I ended up at the right place at the right time. I was lucky enough to to have pre ipo stock options in a company that went public. I was then able to get a third class medical, earn my private pilot certificate and purchase my own Cessna 152. Every time i fly now I feel how lucky I am and still remember those first hours on MSFS 4.0 and the tens of thousands of hours in every version since.
