Real World Friends

I've been using Microsoft flight simulators since the early 1980's.

 

Never once have I ever met anyone else in person in all my travels who also uses it.

 

Is this similar for all of you? Does anyone here actually have real world friends whom they hang out with and who both use FSX or whatever? I don't and wish I did.

 

Just wondering,

Andrew

Does anyone here actually have real world friends whom they hang out with ...

 

Andrew

 

What's the 'real world', and what are friends? (I've lived in a computer for the past 15 years). ;-)

 

Seriously though. Its a good question you posed. I have one friend who's as flightsim-mad as myself, and a cousin also.

I've met a few, Mike Baumann, Dan Walloch, Adam Stanger. We used VOIP at SGA when we wanted to have group conversations, if that counts. I think I got a phone call from Lou Betti once.

 

I keep up with Mike, but most of the other members of SGA seem to have dfirted on to other things. Adam and I drifted away from flight simulation around the same time, but we maintained almost daily contact anyway, up until he had his date with destiny last year.

I got one of my friends interested in FSX. We fly to together on steam whenever he gets around to it (not very often). Sadly, the younger end of the age spectrum is more interested in blowing stuff up than tracking a VOR.

 

Ryan

We fly to together on steam whenever he gets around to it (not very often).

I've got a roundtuit here someplace. I'll see if I can dig it up for you. Then just print your friend a copy...

:D

Pat☺

I've been using Microsoft flight simulators since the early 1980's.

 

Never once have I ever met anyone else in person in all my travels who also uses it.

 

Is this similar for all of you? Does anyone here actually have real world friends whom they hang out with and who both use FSX or whatever? I don't and wish I did.

 

Just wondering,

Andrew

 

Hi Andrew,

I live in the UK and am a member of the North West Flight Sim Group which is a collection of people interested in Flight Sim in all its flavours. We meet once per month on a Saturday 10-4 just south of Manchester. Many people take systems along so we share experiences of each others systems, planes, add-ons etc. We usually have 20-30 people attending a meeting with many more on our membership list - which keeps growing. We also have several commercial pilots and ex military members. I know there are other similar groups in different parts of the UK and would hope there are in other countries too. Its a great way to share the interest. I have formed several friendships through the group and spend time flying with them and helping sort systems etc.

 

Perhaps you can find a similar group near to yourself. It's well worth having a look.

 

Cheers

 

silver

I don't get out much! But... it was a chance encounter on the Isle of Wight ferry that got me into flight sim. I knew that flight sims were out there and was quite jealous of people who had great setups, last one I had was back in 1990 ish.

 

In 2013 I was getting interested in flight again and buying magazines, etc. Coming back from the Isle of the Wight on the ferry I heard a boy tell his dad, "its just like it was in the flight simulator, isn't it?" Never heard anybody mention them before! Soon as I got back home I started looking stuff up and ended up with an awesome homebuilt cockpit to be proud of! If that young lad can fly at home, so can I!

A friend and I have been simming together almost weekly since the FS98 days. We are both real world pilots and have flown a lot of things together, though most of that was over 40 years ago (a little bit in the late '90s). We now use P3D, though, rather than FSX. We use the free/open source mumble/murmur for voice communication. The internet is really nice, since we live about 800 miles apart these days, and we connect direct IP connection, not through an intermediate server.

Both myself and a good friend use FS2004 constantly. Text each other a billion times a day over FS stuff! haha

We also both went to a flight sim dinner organised through FS forums years ago with maybe 10 or so other simmers. It was a VOZ thing with John Venema from Orbx but at that time Orbx didn't even exist yet, John was just telling us about it on the night.

 

FS is great fun even if you don't get involved with anyone else from your real life, that's where the forums come in.

Can't say I ever met anyone, but I did get someone interested in FS2004 who was a former fire fighting aircraft pilot. Then once when I was taking a trip on board an A/C I knew how the plance would turn and line up for the FAF. The guy sitting next to me was shocked how I knew which way the plane would land into KDEN and I explained to him I'm an avid flight simulator user. He was intrigued about the software. LOL

About 6 months ago as I got out of my car at a WalMart and walking to entrance I passed by a car with the windows rolled down a few inches. I mentioned it to a person who I thought was the owner and he said it's 'ok'. I thought I was being helpful. Turned out I was just being a 'smarty pants' and it (window down) was none of my business. The gentleman that replied turned out to be none other than 'JandJfrench' (Jim). After a short chat (don't remember how we got to Flight Sim as hobby) and exchange of names we identified each other. That was a one in a million chance of encounter with someone I was familiar with from the FltSimCom forums but had never met before. Does this count? (hehe).

Chuck B

Napamule

My real world flightsim friend is my 94 year old father in law who still regularly uses fs2004. I have never managed to convert him to fsx which is a shame because it would make things a lot easier to compare and fix. (I use fsx)He lives 60 miles away so he will often get me a list together of things to fix when I visit !

 

I hope I'm still simming at 94 :-)

 

Sent from my SM-A300FU using Tapatalk

Used to fly with a buddy of mine from school when I was going to school for aviation maintenance. These days, neither of us have a whole lot of time to fly.

If you live in the Northeast of US consider going to FlightSimCon. This is being held at the Sheraton at Bradley Airport in Windsor Locks, CT, on June 10 & 11 of this year. i believe this will be the 4th year, & I have attended all but the first year. I find flight simmers are a friendly bunch of people all with an interest in aviation, and I have formed a few friendships from this. From the forums I think groups are more common in the UK & probably elsewhere. but this is the only one I know of in the US.