Much like real life, I try to treasure and remember those moments when everything just seems to come together and feel right.
I have been having some amazing moments like this with MSFS the last few mornings.
I picked up an all of the Northern Sky Studio Hawaiian airports during the Spring Sale and I’ve been getting up and island hopping in the Just Flight PA28, which I simply adore flying.
I live in CA, so Hawaii is 3 hours behind my time zone and my flights are coinciding with the dawn in HI. There have been some mild rains there, so the skies are partly cloudy, which adds so much drama to the morning sun.
Just now, I flew from PHNY to PHLU and as I was just clearing the trees on short final for Runway 5, I had a massive moment of wind sheer, which sent the Piper sideways and upwards.
I love these crazy moments in the sim where you certainly wouldn’t want to be experiencing this sort of thing in real life (unless you’re channeling Jimmy Doolittle) and you pull off some mega piloting skills and place that bird right on the center line after being crabbed like crazy having floated halfway down the runway due to the upset from the wind.
It is incredible how sitting in a dumb office chair staring at glowing pixels whilst gripping a clamped-to-your-desk yoke can simulate the excitement of aviation.
Man, I cannot wait for 2024 and what it will bring us for the next chapter in this book.
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My first flight simulator was Flight Unlimited. I was about 7 when it released. Because I was never able to convince my parents to invest in a stick for me, I fell out of this particular hobby and played more typical games growing up. But I always found myself pining for flight sims.
Smash cut to covid lockdowns 4 years ago, and I find out there’s a new bonkers looking Flight Simulator coming. 25 years of technological progress wasn’t lost on me. I dove in head first when it released with a Thrustmaster T16000 HOTAS.
I’m very excited for FS24 and the tech improvements it will bring. I rediscovered my love for aviation through MSFS, and I’m not letting go this time.
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My #1 moment so far has been handing the controls of the Fouga Magistere to my nephew, who’d never touched a flight sim before. He had fun doing some aerobatics, but his first attempt at landing was an unmitigated disaster. 
I explained the basics of energy management, glide path, etc. I helped him a lot more on the next flight, controlling throttles and flaps while he handled the yoke (no joystick.) He nailed his second attempt on a difficult approach in Hawaii. Big smile on both faces.
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Alas, no flight simulators were available when I was a child (or computers, either). So, we made our own, using the cardboard backs of our schoolbooks, artfully reformatted into aircraft (gliders, really), complete with ailerons & rudder, with a paper clip in the front. Hook to a bag of elastic bands that were all strung together, pull almost to breaking point & release…
Lots of competition on whose glider could fly the furthest, highest, barrel-roll… we were learning all about aerodynamics without realizing it 
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Ah, yes, the good old days of Leonardo sketching helicopters 
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The ornithopter!
I had a rubber band powered one that flew quite well.
Nice!!! 
You’ve created another addict in the family
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Yeah, but he’s so poor I’d have to buy him an Xbox X, the software, and a HOTAS.
I put him to work around the house every few Saturdays so he can earn a little extra money, but at the pauper’s wage I pay him, we’ll have FS3030 before that day comes. 
You’re a mean uncle!!!
Uncle Scrooge.
Get him a used XbX from eBay and I’m sure he would be happy with just a regular controller until Xmas
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I just bought he and I tickets to the ‘Beat’ concert coming up in September. He’s a musician (hence the poor…) and I know we’ll really enjoy doing that together. Still, it’s $120 I could have spent on a used Xbox (or more new aircraft for me!) 
Who is ‘Beat’, you ask?
Former King Crimson members Adrian Belew and Tony Levin will join forces with guitar maestro Steve Vai and drummer Danny Carey (from Tool) in the supergroup ‘Beat’. They are going on tour, playing King Crimson music from the 1980’s.
It’s too bad it’s a North America only tour.
For me its the totally unexpected. Your 2000 miles from home, exploring an area totally unbeknownst just exporing somewhere you do know you shall never see with your own eyes in your lifetime. The cloud breaks… The setting sun 
shines from behind a mountain below the clouds and a rainbow forms 
It’s truely magical for a moment and takes your breath away.
Then i pause and remember before 2020 i could only dream of such a scene in a flight simulator (and ive been flying since 95)
Thats one of those moments for me 
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I got introduced to Microsoft Flight Simulator back in 1998.Was posted away from home and the family also had to leave because of schooling. Being alone and connected with an airline it was the best thing that happened to me when a friend got me a pirated disc of MSFS 1998 which one would shove in a normal PC and just imagine playing it with a keyboard.I remeber flying the B737 which was one of the best planes even then.
Later on got FS2000 and a Game joystick.Fun changed by leaps and bounds.There use to be lot of stuttering and even the sim use to get stuck causing a lot of frustration.Then more relocation and work kept me away till finally in 2022 I read that MSFS2020 was a game changer.
Due poor connectivity in our country felt an Xbox would be a better option.Little did I know I had to wait a whole year to get a new one which my nephew got from the US and one Standard Edition(Disc)I have after two years upgraded myself to Premium Deluxe.
A two hour stint daily is a bare minimum.I am now retired too!!!And that is my story.
Thanks to Microsoft/Asobo for bringing so much joy to so many.
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I’ve had many such moments! MSFS has helped me (re)discover so much about geography, history, and the Interconnectedness of Things. Sitting in my bubble and going about my daily routines I often forget about the outside world. Were it that I had the time and money, I’d be traveling all over, either in an RV or a small plane, enjoying the sights and culture along the way. But that’ll have to wait for retirement, which is quite a ways off.
Meanwhile, the sim is a great analog for those desires, allowing me to see the sights and natural beauty of the world for (essentially) free while still being able to go sleep in my bed and go to work in the morning. And it scratches the pilot itch as well. In total, I’ve spent maybe a couple dozen real flight hours worth of dollars on the sim (and associated hardware) over three and a half years, and I have hundreds of aircraft to show for it. It’s been worth every penny!
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This has been a monumental part of my MSFS enjoyment.
I love airplanes, and always have. To this very day, when I hear one over my house, I slide open the nearest door and start scanning the skies for it. If I hear a radial, I’ll practically run to the nearest door!
Having access to aircraft of all types and impossibilities has been such a joy for me.
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Those moments of pure bliss happen whenever everything just works and I completely forget about the apartment around me and I’m fully immersed in the world presented to me in the sim. Despite being surrounded by (and hooked up to) computers and peripherals, all my modern addictions/distractions like the smartphone, youtube, etc seem distant and irrelevant. My brain is there with me, focused and almost meditating at 2500’ AGL, watching the world roll past below me, while exploring a part of the world I’ll probably never see any other way. I love msfs both as a flight simulator and as a world exploration tool. (I just wish these blissful moments weren’t so abruptly terminated by the “engine shutdown in VR” issue, but that’s already described in another forum thread.)
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MSFS for ~20 years before taking a 12 year break, ~3 years on XBSX, switched to PC, with all my turboprops and business jets and bush planes, sure loving it all on PC.
Two moments in the past few weeks now on PC(above the obvious expected boost)
-First time I saw a liveried airliner with FSLTL take off and the gear go up-FINALLY
-Downloading and sitting in the bagolu 172 Reimes Rocket(red interior version of course). That FS decades-old 172 bucket STILL has some new tricks… And now I find myself back doing simple circuits in the WB152 while I now KNOW the FSR500 will make a 2 hour trip without a hiccup.
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