Who are we now?

[chris455]

Kinda sticken my neck out here- but what the hell.........

 

Guys,

Some of you I have "known" for years...........others, I am only just beginning to know..............

Getting up on the forum these days, it kinda hurts-

There seems to be alot of consternation in the forum.

Especially since the whole Un @#$%^& thing...........

People bickering, defending- 

Attacking one another.

Jason described it perfectly-"toxic".

Over ideas that, while they may seem obvious to to us as individuals, may vary with the ideas of our friends, from many various countries and continents and communities, who make up this forum, that represents the people who buy and fly simulations like BoS, and, by extension, are the reason that simulations like this continue to be developed.

Continue to exist............

"I had a dream....................................................."

That if we could become more to one another than just a signature and an oft-repeated position on an issue, maybe we would seem more like people and less like avatars..............................

Maybe we would be less quick, less eager to to be impatient with one another , and to work with

each other and the Devs to perfect this game, vice voicing our individual bitterness over our individual "grievances".

I'm going to give it a go- what have I got to lose?

 

My name is Chris (duh)

I am 56 years old. Dwight David Eisenhower (the WWII ETO commander) was president when I was born..................

My father served in the USAAF in WWII. He served in the South Pacific. He died in 2007. I love you Dad......

My Uncle Paul was a US Marine in WWII. He participated in the battle for Saipan. He brought home an Arisaka rifle and two Japanese battle flags from the war. My cousin got the rifle. It rusts in his garage.  He died around 1997. I love you Uncle Paul..........

My Uncle Ken was a crewchief on a B-17 in North Africa during the war. Many years later, when I was with him at a airshow that had a B-17 on the runway, I noticed that there was a cofffee can under each engine, to collect leaking oil. Uncle Ken noticed that I was looking at the coffee cans and said- "Don't worry, kid, there's something wrong if they don't leak oil......He died in 1993. I love you Uncle Ken..........

My mom worked at Ryan Aeronautical during the war.... "Rosie The Riveter". She made sub-assemblies for PBY Catalina flying boats for Consolidated Aircraft................... She died in 1995...love you mom............

I served as an Infantryman in the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division from 1980 to 1986.

I currently live in beautiful San Diego, California. I am a technical writer in the aerospace industry. I write technical manuals ("TOs") for the United States Air Force. I love the people I work with, the people I work for, and my job.

I am married to my high school sweetheart, Cheryl. 

Marrying her was the only dream I ever had that actually came true.   (don't worry, she won't read this.....!)   ( but I tell her that from time to time..........)

I have flown flight simulators since the original Microsoft Flight Simulator (actual developers SubLogic) in 1984.

Dynamix Aces of the Pacific

Aces Over Europe

Pacific Air War 1942

Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator (all)

Red Baron

Sierra Pro Pilot

Flying Corps

FSX

Microsoft Flight

IL2 Sturmovik (all bow.........)

DCS

ROF

And a ton of others, including FPS, etc that I'm too tired to name.............

 

I am grateful for BoS, ( and ROF, and CoD, and DCS, etc, etc, etc,) because it gives me another vehicle through which I can enjoy the "comfort food" of WWII aviation, something that since I was a small child, I have craved, and satisfied through books, talking to veterans, watching documentaries and movies, going to airshows, building models, etc..................

 

If anyone else is inclined, to make yourself a real person, here-

do it.

Or laugh at my too- many- glasses- of- wine clumsy efforts to spill my guts about how I really feel about sims like this, about great guys like the ones who make up this forum, about the tireless efforts of the Devs who develop these sims for crazy old farts like me who wish they could have "been there" with their dads................

 

God, I'll bet I'll regret this come morning.........................

 

Chris

Edited November 2, 2014 by chris455

[Yakdriver]

screenshot saved and sent to 9gag.

[Yakdriver]

Kinda sticken my neck out here- but what the hell.........

Chris

 

okay, let me make an attempt at the same kind of thing.

Appreciate you taking the risk...

 

Hi, I'm Bob.

just Bob from Luxembourg

Born in '82 by a pair of drunk and drugged Parents, i was after much thought more of an accident than a wished-for child.

my parents were in their late 40's and my Mom almost "ate it" when delivering me.

Looking at myself in the mirror, i often wonder if an abortion would not have been the better path for all involved.

 

My dad was a rolling stone who could not keep a Job for more than two years - he did plumbing, construction, roofing, all sorts of manual work.

Mom... dunno. After i went thru his papers, i lost interest in what her path was.

 

Was ripped out of the home at the age of 3 by family, and thru social services spent my childhood and youth in a home.

Mom died when i was 5, Dad Visited me once... when i was 7. I had started to ask some questions about who i was and where i came from.

Bad idea... at the age of 7 he visited me, and at the age of 7 i told him to his face to never come back.

Worst decision... i still have a carrier load of unanswered questions, as he died when i was 9.

 

Both Deaths drug related - needles, pills and booze.

 

The youth was spent as a weirdo and outcast, and misery was drowned in Plastic Kits, glue and paint; magazines, music and daydreaming.

Summer days were spent up there, in the trees or far away from the BS, riding a Bike.

 

Onwards - at the age of 21 i was living my own life, first job, first pay, own walls, proper sex, and a first PC.

[2.4intel,256MB/120GB, ATI9000;64MB]

and CFS3. and a Joystick.

the 14 years since that were well spent with CFS2/3

IL-2 [+FB; ASP, PF; 1946]

a bit of WarThunder

a lot of forum time on sim-outhouse, netwings SAS1946, and similar...

 

First trade i learned was that of being an industrial mechanic - fixing tire plants and big machinery

Second trade i learned was of assembling and maintaining PC's, help users...

 

My favorite planes are the kind of planes that get the second row. Typhoons, LaGGs, shtormo, Mitchell, Havoc...

Planes that are famous but not worshiped like Gods in our western countries.

 

Things that don't climb to 30k, but stay below/in the clouds and deliver pain and hurt to anyone raising their barrel towards me.

 

Virtual Flying is an escape from real life which, as i observe it, is moving in a bad direction.

And somewhere in there is also the wish to have been there aged 18, and the latest and greatest Fighter under my Butt...

and die a hopefully short and violent death in a senseless combat fought by a doomed humanity that is too stupid to get along peacefully.

 

4.06 here, and i'll regret this too.

let's regret together then.

Bob

Edited November 2, 2014 by Hawker_Typhoon

[chris455]

Bless you Bob-

it sounds like you had the tougher fight to get here

I'm still glad you're here .......................................

[Bearcat]

I'll bite....

 

Y'all know me... my name is Barry

I have been around since 02...

I have pretty much had the same avatar/sig/handle from the start so y'all get the picture

I have 7 children from 38 to 17 ..... two sons.. the Alpha and the Omega.. the Omega is driving me NUTS at 17.. The Alpha is due to retire from the Navy in 2 more years ... and 5 ladies in between them.

In total I have 9 grandchildren... baby girl 24 and baby boy .. the Omega ..... are the only ones single and childless. 

I have been married twice...... and for me the second time was the charm ... Mamabear and I will be hitting 25 in February...

I'm in the last year of my 5th decade ..... and I still feel 12 sometimes....

I have been working in the same field for the past 33 years fixing high end printers for an American Icon... that just came out of Chapter 11... but I'm still here.

My mom and dad were high school sweethearts ... who got married when I was 47 after both their spouses of 46 and 41 years passed away within one month of each other..

 

  Born and bred in New York City.. GO BIG BLUE! Raised in The Bronx in the 60s & 70s and definitely a product of my times... Yankees! I remember the conversations spoken in hushed tones by the old folks in the kitchen.. about what was going on "down south" .. I remember the stories about Uncle Stokes who shot the sheriff in his North Carolina town .. and hid out from the Klan in a swamp having to go in the water breathing through a reed while they searched for him until he finally got away. My maternal grandfather had a 4th grade education and was on his own at 14. His mother died from pneumonia when she had to pack the kids.. all 12 of them in the buckboard and run in the dead of winter when the Klan came and burned down the house because of Uncle Stokes... My grandfather was number 7 I believe. He was a a patriot.

   

   The first fight I ever got in outside of family squabbles was when I came to P.S. 90 in the Bronx after spending my first two years of school in Pittsburgh with my grandparents.. hence my Black and Yellow affiliation.. and it was in the 2nd grade and some kid took the flag down and stomped on it... and we fought. Briefly.

   

   I have always had a love of airplanes.. and flight. Whether it was Superman or Hell's Angels I don't know.. but flying has always appealed to me. Maybe it was my older cousin's Cox P-40 ... but I was into making model planes plastic and balsa  ... when a lot of my peers were ODing on heroin on the streets of The Bronx in the late 60s and early 70s.

   

    I have loved the sound of the bass guitar ever since I heard Archie Bell and The Drells' "Tighten Up".. and there was Rare Earth's "Get Ready" that put the icing on the cake for me and bass. I got my first bass in 77. I played in a Funk/Disco dance band and then a Dead cover band in the late 70s mid 80s for a while .. then I got married and started having/raising kids. I dropped music altogether in the mid 80s till 2001 when, after leaving N.Y.C. for good I moved to Virginia and started playing bass at my church. I was not a church goer in N.Y. but I always was a searcher. Looked into Islam for a hot minute.. but I wasn't about to give up my ham or my bacon.. or my chops. Among other reasons that I will not mention here. Did the chants.. and the chakras.. and the crystals.. and the U book thing.. and the ARE... Microcosmology.. Nuwabu.. and settled back to where I am now as far as something.. someone to believe in who is greater than myself.

  

     My first "sim" was the F-15 Fighting Falcon for the Sega Master System on a card.. Well actually my first "sim" was an arcade game in Times Square at Playland that my  stepdad used to take me to and it was a WWI thing. I believe it was The Red Baron or something like that because the plane was a Red Fokker DR-1 but it was NOT a modern sim. It was actually a projector based game with slides and pre recorded sound effects. There was no "screen" in the modern sense. Then of course there was Afterburner... and Defender..  Lots of quarters there.... but my fist at home sim was the one with the Sega. My first PC sim was F-117 Nighthawk followed by Warbirds II and I got that around 98 but I did not play it much. I  got into my current love affair with WWII flight sims through CFS1 in 2001.. shortly after 9/11. When I moved down to Va my local Best Buy had a copy of CFS 1 installed on a PC with a MSFFB2 joystick. I would stop by and fiddle with it and then i found myself going to the store just to fiddle with it and even waiting to the other folks fiddling with it were done. After 9/11 I heard that the hijackers used FS2000 to practice with.. so I decided to get it.... and I did.  I got CFS 1 as an after thought but I balked when I saw the MSFFB joystick going for $100 and the Saitek X-45 for $80. I settled for the Logitech Wingman which at the time didn't even have rudder control..  (whuuuuuuttt...) I took them both home.. installed them both.. flew MSFS2000 for about 15 minutes... booted up CFS 1 and that was it. I got online like my second week... on the MSN Gaming Zone.. There I met 99th_Patches and we remain friends to this day. I was trying to think of a handle.. so I settled on Bearcat99 because I always had a thing for bears.. and my birthday falls in early August.. and the 99.. well that was for the Fighting 99th of course.. 

 

    My mother told me about them when I was about 12... I was making a Mustang model (always my favorite plane.. that and the P-40) and she said being the very conscious woman that she is... "You know there were black men too who flew those planes..." and took me to the library although in in '67 there was not a lot out about the 332nd. So needless to say when the 95 HBO film came out I was literally waiting with baited breath for it. While waiting for CFS3 to come out in 2002 I had upgraded my rig for it and I saw this sim called IL2 that I didn't even look at before because I learned the hard way that system requirements were there for a reason.  My PII with a S3 card could barely run CFS1.. even after I upgraded the GPU to a 64M NV something or other..  so I upgraded to an AMD XP1600 with a Radeon 9000 GPU. I saw this... IL2 thing that I couldn't run before and now I was squarely in the sys reqs so I bought it on the recommendation of a guy on the Zone named Leost and a stranger in the parking lot named Phil. We got to talking about flight sims and I told him I was checking to see if CFS 3 was in and he told me he already had it and it sucked..  ( I was clueless as to how he could possibly have it before it was out...  .. now I know.. ) but try this IL2 thing. Been here ever since.

 

Anywho.. that's me... For me this simming thing is like a childhood fantasy come true. I was that kid running around with the model plane in his hand going..... "Eeeeeearrrrrnnnnnhhhhhhh duhduhduhduhduhhhhhh ..." I had the models hanging from my ceiling.. and I knew about Spitfires, Mustangs, 109s , P-47s , B-25s, B-17s and Dc3s when most of my peers were into .... other things.. I have a 1/18 model of a Mustang that takes me back to when my hands were small and everything was bigger. I am at the point in my life where I realize that I have more years behind me than I do ahead of me .... and at this point I just want to do the best I can where I am. My mantra has become Start where you are, use what you have.. and do what you can.

[Yakdriver]

wasnt harder than your path...
my goal is to make it to ages like you yourself and beyond...
:-)
so cheers Chris!
 

[scoobe]

Great story Bob.  I too am glad your here. You had a lot to overcome in life and a lot to be proud of!

 

My name is Rob

I just turned 51.

I'm married for 10 years to wife #2 and have a wonderful 9yr old son who keeps me busy. He's into PC games too, but not flight sims.

 

I grew up in a suburb of NY City.

Went to college and majored in Aerospace engineering but never pursued that as a career. I was an average student. Nothing to brag about. I went through a confusing period where I really didn't know what I wanted to do and wound up in the Army where I went to flight school. Learned to fly helicopters in the UH-1 and later to the AH-1 Cobra(1989-90). Washed out of flight school at the very end (night vision goggle stage). My eyes just could not adjust to the NV goggles. 

 

After my time was up, I did not want to pursue a career in the Army. I wanted a more dull, yet stable life with a family etc..  After that, I worked in Computer tech, support and as a programmer on an IBM AS400 (RPG). I spent a lot of time (and money) building and upgrading computers for myself just to play these games.

 

Somehow, I wound up working for a major NY newspaper, where I work in the newsroom as a manger. I've been here almost 15 years now.

 

I've been into PC's since Gunship 2000 I bought from the Army PX back in 1991. I've had anything that was flight related since then. spent a lot of time in FS9, FSX and X-plane but I enjoy the combat sims the most. I'm a big fan of the old Janes and Microprose games from the 90's

 

I'm currently having a lot of fun with BOS but also play a lot of Clod.

 

Rob

[HagarTheHorrible]

What a stupid thread ! !

 

Then I started reading !!

 

Flight simmers are obviously just more complicated, interesting individuals than your average.

 

I cringe even at he thought of typing these words "Thanks for sharing" but thankyou never the less,

[Finkeren]

Hi.

 

Name's Martin

 

Born '82, got a wife and a daughter (2yrs old). Living in Valby on the outskirts of Copenhagen.

 

Nothing really interesting to say about my life. It's pretty interesting for me, but I struggle to think of anything that would be interesting for other people to read.

 

Even though I'm an academic, I currently make a living (sort of) by painting murals.

 

My parents are among the few active communists left in Denmark.

 

I guess that's about as interesting as it gets.

 

Sorry.

[Pringliano]

José, 50, a typical Portuguese :-)

Living near Lisbon ( the Westernmost town of Continental Europe, and a very beautiful one too!!! ), a MetOffice worker ( we're always under attack in the mouths of the men/women in the street...) 

 

Started flying, IRL, at 16 - gliders, on a Blanik L13, Ronlerche, Bergfalke, Cobra15... many other followed along the years, and dreaming of becoming a commercial pilot. Still fly gliders ( love it!!! ), but that, and flight simulation, is the close I can get to flying, and indeed glider flying / soaring is a unique and rather gratifying experience I can only recommend to all aviation lovers ;-)

 

University life began, away went my dreams when I found that I could never pay for a ATPL, and had to start my working life an earning my own money...

 

Met flight simulators with the SPECTRUM and a 744 simulator that ran on it, in the mid eighties!!! But around 1992 I was finaly intoxicated by MSFS ( fs4 ), then ATP, IFT-PRO, fs5, fs... fsx, x-plane.... PS1..... DCS, IL2 BOS, ROF and PSX.

 

It is mostly flight and systems, as well as weather modeling that I appreciate the most on a flight sim. Use of Combat flightsims included many I don't even recall, but certainly a few are solid in my memory, like CEAC, IL2 Sturmovik, CFS1 and 2, Jane's WW2 Fighters.

 

I always turned to Combat Flight simulators as an escape from the frustrating limitations I found on the Civil flightsims. With IL2 BOS, for the very first time, I turned into an almost dogfight addict - which made me uninstall it a few weeks ago, because it was occupying way too much spare time.... Anyway, it's back on my rig, and I plan to continue using it for as long as I live :-)

 

Presently three sims fulfill my want's and expectations as a simmer - Aerowinx PSX and X-plane 10 ( mostly used for the visuals for PSX ), DCS World for it's remarkable flight dynamics, as well as systems modeling, of prop and rotary wing aircraft ( looking fwd to try the K4 this month!!! ), and IL2 BOS which brought me so far the best / closest to real sensation of "being there" I ever had from a PC-based flightsim :-). Rise of Flight is awaiting time to study it, and learning yet another bunch of keys and keyboard combinations, flying and combat techniques à la WW1. Bought it after IL2 BOS because I am really very well impressed and place huge expectations on this sim, and it shares the same physics modeling and approach to World simulation.

 

Looking forward for additional maps for IL2 BOS, aircraft as well, although I still have a LOT to learn simply using all of those I already have ( the 10 of them ). Also looking forward and placing big expectations in the future of DCS World, specially EDGE and Normandy Map!  In the civil sim "arena", tasting every single bit of what the best Boeing 747-400 flight simulator ever made available for a PC offers his users ( Aerowinx PSX ), and looking forward for the future of the presently more promising civil flight simulation platform available - X-Plane 10. Dreaming of what Aerowinx FS v2 may bring ?

Edited November 2, 2014 by jcomm

[J2_Trupobaw]

Wiktor here,

born in 1978 which makes me one of youngsters in this thread , ten years before fall of communism in Poland.

 

My parents were both academic philosophers, dad was into German philosophy, Kant especially, mother never needed to let us know what she worked on. Being a not marxist-leninist philosopher was a career blocker back then, but they pursued it with dedication.

 

I've lived first ten years in... not sure what to call it, it was run like students dorm, but inhabited by non-tenured university researchers and their families. People could live there well into their 30s before they had chance of flat of their own, about 45 families packed in tight rooms, everybody with PhD, everybody poor, everybody with children, always short of food but never short of books. They called it ghetto for intellectuals . It reads like XIX century moralising novella right now but was business as usual to us. So was the martial law, for us young enough to not remember times before it.

A really bad thing about growing up in totalitarian state with rational mind is, well, need to rationalise things. Dad's friend got imprisoned for laying anti-government leaflets? Well, government runs the prisons, so they decide whom to put in, right? It's bad, but not exactly wrong. The food is rationed, everyone having a ticket book? Well look at mathematical symmetry in fact that each piece of meat in country has a corresponding piece of paper, you can almost hear music of the spheres  . I'm glad it ended before I grew more into it. The rationalising stayed, though; sometimes it helps me understand the misunderstood, sometimes I end up helping jerks find excuses, and I rarely know which is which. 

Dad's political prisoner friend went nuts by the way, believing that communist secret police was spying on him from helicopters 15 years after they've been defunct. He made a career on his unique worldview, though, going as far as advisor to one of our presidents. 

Ok, I'm rambling. Back on the track.

I never got out of academic ghetto. I went into mathematics / computer science, at least as far from father's humanities as I could. When I realised that even in maths depertment I was son of that philosophy professor (they all went through the same TA dorm), I moved to the other end of the country with my fiancee to make our PhDs there. We did, mostly through tenacity in my case.  

 

She did the smart thing and quit academia to work as software engineer, I am rising our year old daughter at home and wondering whether to follow her (and put my research talents to waste) or go back to academia (and put my talents to waste anyway, much of time and energy there is spent navigating byzantine beaurocracy and fighting off people who  treat science as d*ck measuring contest). I should have become a fireman after high school  . 

In what time I have when not watching after my daughter, I fly sims a lot. Which isn't much, I find it easier to hang out here on forums when she plays around than find flying time when she's under my wife's care.  There was a sport / agricultural airfield next to dorm I was rised in, so low flying single engine planes were normal part of life. So was watching parachutists, jumping from An-2s almost over our house. My first sim was F-19 Stealth Fighter by Microprose, but I was captivated by Tie Fighter and spent next 15 (!) years flying it and it's sequels and clones, skipping entire Il-2 era. It was a really excellent game, demanding of situational awareness and build around well thought, immersive scripted missions. Although flight models were pretty bad ;P.

I've been toying with idea of playing proper flight sims for years, but always decided that it will be to complicated demanding and went for more space sims instead. I must have picked IL2-1946 box ten or more times in the shop only to put it back - to realistic, I have research to be done, no time to learn that. So me five years ago is a perfect example of people BoS is marketed to . Finally I picked Wings of Prey because it looked easy but realistic enough, quickly decided I need more realism, bought a whole new rig capable of running Cliffs of Dover and tried to learn flying on unpatched CloD. It didn't go well, but I've found Rise of Flight and it set me on right track.

At the moment I still consider RoF my most important sim, but in SP I fly mostly BoS. RoF has taught me to fly (and use the rudder), but BoS is doing wonders for my gunnery and  BnZ technique. I keep CloD as my off-line sim, and go throught heinkill's campaigns every time my internet service fails me. I kave IL2-1946 for the same purpose, but CloD always gets my attetion. I keep buying DCS planes, but I've started it when my daughter was already born and never had the time to learn them. Besides, I never see what to do with these planes besides sightseeing flights. Same goes for X-plane, I keep it as navigational / sightseeing sim, but rarely know what to do with it. I've just bought aerofly as pure sightseer / pleasure flight sim, time will tell if I'll keep flying it. 

[chris455]

OK-

After reading  about a few of the interesting and very diverse people here on the forum, I offically do not regret posting this thread! 

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

Hi, I'm Child 34 "Fabi", Age 84.

 

I was born an Orpahan, Main Street of York under some Paper and a stick on the height of the "Great Derpession". All I had to eat was Dust and Wet Gravel of the Road and I was happy if I had Piss to drink.

When I made my first Step I started working in the Coal Mines and payed a 5-pence every Day to the company, because I was damn happy to have the Job. And if the Miners felt like it they would smash my Head to bits with shovels and Pickaxes and take my food and money.

 

At age 9 I entered the Navy shoveling tons of coal, 24h a day, 7 Days a week, and if I didn't exceed my quota I would be shot and stabbed to death repeatedly. And sometimes, when they got drunk, the mariners would shove me into Fire Tube and leave me burning for hours. But I didn't mind, they were my family you know? We were eventually sunk by a U-Boat. I drowned and was repeatedly attacked and eaten alive by sharks, but I eventually was washed up at the Beach of Dieppe right during the Dieppe Raid.

 

I was mowed down by Machine Gun Fire all Day until they took me POW and sent me to the slave labour camps. They didn't gas me too much and I really didn't mind them starving me to death. I lived outside the barracks in a ditch and all I could do was gnaw the wooden pillars off the Camp Fence. I worked at the chemical plants and had to mix C-Stoff and T-Stoff with my bare Hands and sometimes the Guards would set me on fire for no good reason.

 

When the war was over I was Courtmarshalled and shot as a traitor. I married a boring woman and had a couple of boring children and started working as a Control Rod in a Nuclear Plant. I still play Flight Sims on my Punchcard Computer and from time to time am electrocuted, but at least I have a stable 56kb/s Internet Connection.

 

(IRL: German, 20yo, 1st Semester of aeronatuical engineering in Aachen, 7 wind launches and 1 aerotow takeoff, Really living up with all-like-minded people around me, no interesting past, Agnostic Anti-Theist, political: radically moderate mid-left-no-superstitous-woo-woo-tax-exempt, Monty Python and George Carlin Fan, Listen to News/Talk Radio, Car: Opel Combo 1.3 CDTI (best car in the world, like a puppy), Motorbike: 1986 BMW R65, hopefully trading it for a Diesel Enfield  (Hatz or Ruggerini) had an Internship with that guy, am planning to fly these in the future:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjWZmd2fWKQ

Got my first Sim at age 5, been hooked ever since. Oh yeah, Bud Spencer and Terence Hill are amongst my few Idols.

Edited November 2, 2014 by myfabi94

[Finkeren]

LOL

 

Best one so far.

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

Inspired by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAtSw3daGoo

[Finkeren]

Yeah I thought so

[oneeyeddog]

Hi, I'm Child 34 "Fabi", Age 84.

 

I was born an Orpahan, Main Street of York under some Paper and a stick on the height of the "Great Derpession". All I had to eat was Dust and Wet Gravel of the Road and I was happy if I had Piss to drink.

When I made my first Step I started working in the Coal Mines and payed a 5-pence every Day to the company, because I was damn happy to have the Job. And if the Miners felt like it they would smash my Head to bits with shovels and Pickaxes and take my food and money.

 

At age 9 I entered the Navy shoveling tons of coal, 24h a day, 7 Days a week, and if I didn't exceed my quota I would be shot and stabbed to death repeatedly. And sometimes, when they got drunk, the mariners would shove me into Fire Tube and leave me burning for hours. But I didn't mind, they were my family you know? We were eventually sunk by a U-Boat. I drowned and was repeatedly attacked and eaten alive by sharks, but I eventually was washed up at the Beach of Dieppe right during the Dieppe Raid.

 

I was mowed down by Machine Gun Fire all Day until they took me POW and sent me to the slave labour camps. They didn't gas me too much and I really didn't mind them starving me to death. I lived outside the barracks in a ditch and all I could do was gnaw the wooden pillars off the Camp Fence. I worked at the chemical plants and had to mix C-Stoff and T-Stoff with my bare Hands and sometimes the Guards would set me on fire for no good reason.

 

When the war was over I was Courtmarshalled and shot as a traitor. I married a boring woman and had a couple of boring children and started working as a Control Rod in a Nuclear Plant. I still play Flight Sims on my Punchcard Computer and from time to time am electrocuted, but at least I have a stable 56kb/s Internet Connection.

 

(IRL: German, 20yo, 1st Semester of aeronatuical engineering in Aachen, 7 wind launches and 1 aerotow takeoff, Really living up with all-like-minded people around me, no interesting past, Agnostic Anti-Theist, political: radically moderate mid-left-no-superstitous-woo-woo-tax-exempt, Monty Python and George Carlin Fan, Listen to News/Talk Radio, Car: Opel Combo 1.3 CDTI (best car in the world, like a puppy), Motorbike: 1986 BMW R65, hopefully trading it for a Diesel Enfield  (Hatz or Ruggerini) had an Internship with that guy, am planning to fly these in the future:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjWZmd2fWKQ

Got my first Sim at age 5, been hooked ever since. Oh yeah, Bud Spencer and Terence Hill are amongst my few Idols.

My Mothers' family is near Aachen, Stolberg.

[Rjel]

My name is Rick. Actually it's Ricky Ray. Still makes me laugh. My sisters, daughters and some female friends think it's cute so I'm good with that. Like a couple of the other guys here, I'm a product of the late 1950s. I don't have an exciting life story to share really. I spent over 30 years working in the retail industry, most of it in management. It was a great career, perfect for me in as much as it helped me develop real life people skills, even if they aren't always evident in my posts. I'm in a second career now working in the pet supply industry. I really can't see myself ever retiring. As my avatar shows, I'm a Detroit Tigers fan. Life long.

 

I'm divorced with two grown daughters that are my entire world. That is until recently when my oldest girl had her first daughter, my first granddaughter. Wow! It still amazes me when I hold this little three week old. I never imagined myself as a grandfather, but this little girl nearly makes my heart burst. Some of you will laugh, but when it happens to you, you'll know what I mean.

 

I've always been an airplane buff. I can remember as a little kid seeing contrails and wondering what they were. To me they were funny looking clouds back then. But in my minds eye, I can still see them as I did as a little boy. I always wanted to learn to fly bit it just never happened. It's still a dream but odds are it'll never happen. Maybe next time around. I've always enjoyed history. Set me in front of a documentary on TV and I'll enjoy it far more often than not. So the two, history and aviation have intertwined. I'm an avid reader of anything having to do with the USAAF Fourth Fighter Group in WWII and a big admirer of Col. Don Blakeslee. Why has his story not yet been written? An incredible man.

 

Like a lot of us I suspect, I got my first computer just to play a flight sim, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. I was hooked from the first minute. It's been like that every since. I've flown most of the major sims since then and several lesser ones. Each has offered something to enjoy. Some more than others. I've met some nice folks flying sims. I've met some of the other kinds too. And to be perfectly honest, I'm sure I've struck some in exactly the same way. But for almost 25 years now, this has been my hobby. And I love it.

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

My Mothers' family is near Aachen, Stolberg.

I live on the Dutch side of the Border, crossing the Siegfriedlinie/Westwall every Day. I fly from the NATO Base in Geilenkirchen, where the Awacs are stationed. We don'T even leave base on a normal pattern. Hope to get my license as soon as possible. This is what I fly: http://www.fag.fh-aachen.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/470278_237823816312563_1975870537_o-1024x768.jpg

[Cybermat47]

My name's Bryn. I'm a 15 year old boy in New South Wales, Australia. I'm an agnostic-atheist, and I also have Asperger's Syndrome. I've got some problems with interacting with others socially, but I'm getting better.

I got into WWII aviation pretty early. I think the main reason was because my Dad's interested in them, so thanks to him I saw Battle of Britain and looked at the aircraft at the Australian War Memorial. I only really got into flight sims around a year or two ago, though, when I got Rise of Flight. I enjoy them a lot, despite only having an old joystick, and no TrackIR or pedals.

I'm not sure what I want to do when I'm an adult. I'm thinking of going into the entertainment industry, being an actor or writer. That's probably thanks to watching Doctor Who (classic and new) and watching the behind-the-scenes stuff. I'd also like to join one of the reserve forces of the Australian Defence Force. I'm also considering becoming a psychologist, but that's a fairly new idea for me.

[chris455]

Welcome to a wonderful hobby Bryan! Our community really needs young people like you to continue to flourish and grow.

Nice to meet you!

[Imur6]

What a warm atmosphere here!

 

Ok I'm in. My real name is Jeongwoo and I'm 43,  working at Hewlette Packard Company in South korea.  (Of course, I'm korean   )

I have a wife like a fox and 2 sons like a rabbit!  Well, not sure this expression is common in other country, but We normally use this kind of conceit.

 

Actually, my Flight sim life has begun with MicroSoft Flight Simulator 1 for Apple II in around '84 and I've played :

 

Their Finest Hour (by Lucas Arts)

F-19 (by Microprose)

Falcon 3.0(by Spectrum Holobyte), 

and so on...

 

I don't have much time to play BOS but always trying to feel and play it!  

 

Next please~

Edited November 3, 2014 by Imur6

[Kleinburger]

Hello, my name is Ethan. I was born in 1990(in McAllen Texas where I still live today) that makes me 24 at this moment. I have been playing flight sims since I was 6 years old, on and off always kicking my dad off the computer so I could have a turn at flying . I come from a long time military family, every generation has served going back to the French and Indian War (for the crown in that one but against her in the scuffle called the American Revolution). My Grandfather(Granpa Red as we called him due to his well red hair) served in the 4th Armored, 3rd Army in the Mechanized Infantry. My grandmother has a photo of him and his platoon with Gen. Patton relieving themselves in the Rhine obviously taken from behind lol.  

 

My Grandfather on my Mother's side became an officer and was a B-29 navigator and flew in one of the only strategic bombing missions over North Korea later serving in SAC in Alaska. Funny story about that you see he wanted to get the increased payout of the pilot retirement but to do this he had fly X number of additional hours well his CO told him no he is not allowed to complete those remaining hours. So thinking he's already in Alaska on a remote facility where else could they send him as punishment for completing these additional flight hours... as you probably guessed He went ahead and completed his last hours, well the people above did not like that, at all. So they sent him further north to an extremely remote outpost only accessible by bush plane which came around once a month for supply drops. He was there with just 1 other person who apparently also did something to piss off the brass go figure.

 

My father and 4 out his 5 brothers served in the military, Uncle Tom serving in the navy for a couple years got his bachelor's then joined the army where he served for 24 years retiring as a Lt. Colonel, Uncle Bob joined the Marine Core as an officer eventually becoming a "JAG" officer after many years in the force recon retired Colonel, Uncle Kevin and Pat both served in the Airforce dont know what rank they made it too, and father served in the Navy from '70 to '74 on a Naval base in New Orleans as a radio man/computer tech dealing with punch card programming and ticker tape.

 

I have not served, being ineligible for military service whatever that means I am fit and willing but I suspect it had something to do with the downsizing. So I am continuing my studies to become a Computer Engineer have 1 more year to go then either grad school or going to work for either Lockheed(have family working in the Skunk works) or Texas Instruments(have several friends that currently work there). Its going to be a pretty tough choice, I have several professors that want me to stay for grad school and participate in their research but I do need to bring in more income as I am a father myself having a 3 year old boy Matthew and just found out last week we are due for a second child. 

 

My son loves planes and tanks, we take him to the Air show we have down here every year went inside a B17 (how cool is that) and he loves watching me fly on BoS or driving in tanks on WT. I am also an avid table top wargamer playing everything from 10mm ancients to 15mm Napoleonics to Flames of War. I however do live in one of the poorest area's of the Country and one of the most stricken by the Mexican Cartel violence and trafficking of drugs, but also a high percentage of people from down here sign up and serve. I do volunteer work at the veterans assistance building down here and have also helped build homes in the most unprivileged areas of my county(not country).

 

I look forward to flying in the skies over Stalingrad with you guys (just as soon as I unlock what I want/need in singleplayer).

Edited November 3, 2014 by Kleinburger

[Reflected]

I’m Greg, born in Hungary in 1984 which makes me 30. I currently live in the capital, Budapest. I come from a family of doctors but they talked me out of that profession, seen it’s not a very well paid job around here, with a lot of work and responsibilities. My grandpa always had a passion for aviation and I got infected early on. He still builds and flies RC models at the age of 84. That’s when I decided to become a fighter pilot (watching Top Gun played a large part too, haha). This dream lasted right until I did my driving license at 17, and at the medical check it turned out that I am color deficient.

 

That was a big change of plans, so I just kinda drifted from job to job after graduating from Business school, while focusing on my other passion: music. As a kid I had piano classes for 8 years, then I switched to playing guitar. I started a punk-rock band which lasted 10 years, called “Reflected” (hence the username) We’ve travelled all around the country and Europe, released several records (even in the USA). Although it eventually ended because this country is not the place to make a living with playing original music (and we might have sucked too  ) – I owe the best memories of my life to this period. I still perform with an acoustic set in smaller bars, just for the heck of playing and some extra money.

 

Last year I started playing with a violinist who asked me: “why don’t you fly gliders?” I’d never considered soaring after I found out how expensive a PPL was, but I said: hey, this one is affordable, and  now I have free time too. So I signed up, and after my first season I got past my “C” exam. Until now flying was part of my life in the form of flight sims and plastic models, but now I finally made my dream come true: I became a pilot – even if not the kind I was planning to become.

 

This is where my life is at the moment. Oh, and flight sims: I started with Aces over Europe, then AOP, Fleet Defender, 1942, EAW, Rowan’s Flying Corps, Il2, BoB WoV2, RoF, FS, CloD, and now BoS with very high hopes.

[1./ZG1_ElHadji]

I am going to jump on this mainly because your list of flight sims is almost identical to mine Chris. I have a couple of JANE's sims on mine as well though.

 

Well, I'm Henric, 45 from Sweden. My nickname El Hadji originates from the days when I competed (the clan I played with was actually sponsored so it was at least a semi-serious gaming career) in online shooters on Xbox LIVE. I hate to say it, but the nick was GREAT to make American players angry and therefore less focused. Less focus = easy kills.   I still play games with my old clan members but these days it's just for fun. We are all 40+ so it's hard to keep up with the youngsters. I also run a Swedish gaming community called Xboyz.se.

 

My dad came to Sweden in 1941 from Finland (a lot of kids from Finland were sent here). My grand dad served in the Finnish army from 1939 until the end. His experiences in the war made him a alcholic and he died in 1964, My grand mother died during the war. My dads new family had a older son who had moved to the USA in the mid 30's. He served as a medic in the Pacific with the US armed forces and I am proud to have two of his campaign medals. Even though there is no real blood ties I still call his family 'family' and they all live in the Los Angeles area where a majority of them work in Law Enforcement. My cousins (not a real cousin but you get the picture...) husband served in Vietnam between 1968 and 1970.

 

I am married and I have a 12 year old son. I have a degree in electro engineering and I have a degree in political science from the University of Gothenburg. I am currently self employed and I am the owner/co-owner of three companies. As most Swedes from my generation I served in the Swedish armed forces. I wanted to make the most of that time so I signed up for the Royal Swedish Marines and served in the northern Baltic sea area during the Cold War. At one point I had plans of making the military a career and was accepted to the Military Academy in Stockholm but ended up at the university instead.

 

I am very interested in World War II history and throw myself over every good book and documentary there is on the subject. I have always been interested in aviation and I still build plastic models as soon as get the chance. I also took classical piano lessons for about ten years when I was younger and played in a 'synth pop' band in the 80's. I have recently picked that up again, mostly for fun. When I don't spend my gaming time flying in DCS or IL-2 BoS, I play quite a bit of Company of Heroes (Blitzkrieg Mod).

 

Well, don't know how to end this so lets just finish with some quick facts:

 

Favourite cousine: Italian

Drives: BMW 745i

Latest gaming related purchase: MFG Crosswind rudder pedals (expected delivery in December)

Fav holiday location: TRNC (North Cyprus)

Fav drink: Spitfire Ale (what else could there be?)

Fav sports team: couldn't care less

Fav TV series: Band of Brothers

Currently reading: Junkers Ju-87 Stukageschwader Aces of The Russian Front (John Weal, Osprey)

Edited November 3, 2014 by -=XBOYZ=-ElHadji

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 Might as well add my story, or at least some of it Name is Christian, was born in Sweden, Göteborg (Gothenburg) in 1973. Parents were Finns who lived and worked in Sweden, as did and still do most of my relatives. Mom still alive and kicking, dad made the "final solution". Got a sister 1977 and in 1980 moved to Finland, for some darn reason Started school here speaking like only a few words of finnish as we never spoke finnish at home. At those times the "finnjävel" (Finnish son of a b) was pretty much used and parents did not want us to stick out. I still speak swedish, been using it in my work My uncle, who lived in Finland at that time, showed me the first model kits when I was at age of 4. Oh boy did I want those! And did build quite a few over the years, even now a few await for a new inspiration to start this hobby, pass it to my son

 

 School went normally and of course played all flight related games on my trusty Commodore 64 since 1984. My dream was to be a fighter pilot, but that was crushed when I got my first asthma stroke Oh well, life went on and I served as conscript in FiAF, working on Mig-21bis. Quite an interesting plane there, but clearly very labor intensive and of very crude quality. But it flew. Even managed to get a girlfriend around that time and stuck with her some 10 years before she decided to pick another guy Well, by that time I had already got my first PC and ISDN connection to the internet. Tested Warbirds, Fighter Ace and then EAW and Jane's WW2 Fighters, was in a few squads during that time. Those games were the real kickers to online flying. Around 2000/2001 began to play Aces High 2 and IL-2 beta with Lentolaivue 34.  And oh boy did I play! Almost ruined my healt with it as GF had left me and had only work and freetime = played allnighters during weekends and up to 2-3am during weeks.

 

 A few months later I had lost 15kg of weight, looked like a zombie and barely stayed awake. And by that time I was already working in FiAF, since 1997. Add to the mix lot of partying and boozing, was not going to be good for me in the long run. One day just snapped out of it, began to sleep and eat proper. Improved my health and mind a lot Even had a new GF, but she did not last long before going. Whatever, they come and go. But flight sims still played a big role in my life and played them, even with lot less intensity as before to keep things under control. Was in the modding business of original IL-2, learned the FM tweaking. Was quite fun, but I became bored on flying as they were and still are only games. Work with real planes just added to this, showing the glaring shortcomings our "sims" have. Lost the fun so to say.

 

 So 2005 started with EVE Online and dwelled into those big alliance fights, flew with and against Band Of Brothers for example, before Goons took them down in the well planned coup. So life would not be only gaming I met a girl and bam, my shots found their mark and 2007 my son was born. Cheebus! That did cut gaming for me! And when he was around 11 months old I found myseld alone with the kid, woman left. Single daddy in one day, but managed. That rascal is now 7 years old and in 1st grade! Proud as a dad can be! Even sorted out issues in my life, which has calmed things down a lot.

 

 Hobbies include listening to music, mostly metal, and computer games(flight / battletech), reading, WW2 history and stuff. And of course being with my son, no female nagging creature in our household! Spicy food is one of my favorites, can't resist the kick of the chili! My butt complains though Son and me share one same passion: BMW cars. Always liked them, really Freude am Fahren Current one is a BMW 535d, E60 chassis. 272hp/560Nm of diesel power! Only lacks a differential lock, like the BMW M5 E34 I had before. That was a purty car!

 

 Anyways..Basket case as always. Enjoying life with my son and working with planes, how could things get better?

Edited November 3, 2014 by LLv34_Flanker

[chris455]

Yes Henric,

It would seem we are from parallel univeres, so to speak.

I dont kmow about you, but somehow when I read about guys in there 40s,50s, and 60s playing flight sims, it feels kind of........validating.

Thanks for posting!

[Yakdriver]

I like where this is going...
welcome everyone!

[Rjel]

Yes Henric,

It would seem we are from parallel univeres, so to speak.

I dont kmow about you, but somehow when I read about guys in there 40s,50s, and 60s playing flight sims, it feels kind of........validating.

Thanks for posting!

A poll here shows we are the majority on this site. It does make me feel less of a nerd.

[Bearcat]

Yes Henric,

It would seem we are from parallel univeres, so to speak.

I dont kmow about you, but somehow when I read about guys in there 40s,50s, and 60s playing flight sims, it feels kind of........validating.

Thanks for posting!

 

When I started this this thing I was 46. My wife used to get really upset.. then I guess she realized that this beats hanging out in bars chasing women.. from a married man's perspective anyway.. When I look at the money I have spent over the past 13 years on the entire thing from rigs to software etc.. it still  balances out as the best entertainment bang for the buck that I have spent.. Then when I consider all the stuff I have learned as an offshoot of this..website building.. PhotoShop.. loads of history.. met some great folks from all over the world that I never would have met had it not been for this hobby.. Yup.. worth every penny.

[Gambit21]

Amen

I've used the "better than me out with the guys/not even being in the house" reasoning myself. LOL

Trouble is with my wife is that she has no point of reference. What she really needs is to experience me actually going out/away

and doing other things. Then she'd have some perspective.

 

Truthfully, she's pretty good about it. I just always feel a little tension when I say I'm going to go fly - and some of that is self inflicted I think.

[chris455]

I'm crazy about my wife, and she always is a sport when I want to "go upstairs and fly a little"

But I will admit she has an uncanny knack to want a hug or ask a question at the exact moment when Ive got that friggen bandit almost in my sights, and his wingman on my 6!

[Baldric]

Hi folks,

 

I'll bite.  My name is Dave and I am Canadian.  I am 52 years old and have had a varied career/life primarily as a government employee in public services, including a stint as an infantryman, and now as a registered nurse specializing in acute care psychiatric nursing (in particular PTSD).  I've been hitched for almost 29 years and luckily my wife is a gamer chic (EVE, WoW, and enjoys Arma 2) I've been flying air sims since the mid-1980's starting with Microprose's F15 Strike Eagle (for C-64) and Mig Alley.  I've always enjoyed aircraft, attending airshows when I was much younger.  My grandfather was a bush pilot in the late 1930's, then flew Hurricanes over France and then Spitfires in the Battle of Britain.  After the war he went back to working on bush planes.  I had an uncle who was a tailgunner in Lancasters.  The airshows were the catalyst for tons of Airfix and Matchbox model aircraft being built, and some tether flying (does anyone still do that?) and Guillow balsa kits ftw.

 

Table top games like Richtofen's War (Avalon Hill) and Air Force/Dauntless (AH) got tons of play and still get dragged out once in awhile.

 

I fell into the original IL-2 just after it was first released, then Pacific Fighters, and IL-2 Forgotten Battles and now BoS (which, despite a few warts, I really like).  I have CLoD but enjoy BoB II more.  OFF/RoF/WOFF are my WWI favs.  A brief love/hate with Lock-On and later DCS modules.  When I want jet-sim lite I fly Strike Fighters 2. I civvy sim fly in FSX/P3D (Air Hauler).

 

That's about it for me, cheers and kind regards,

Dave

[rigbyDerekb1948]

Hello Chris,

 

What a great idea for a post - and I always thought that I was the only "older"  simmer around (at 66!). 

 

My name is Derek, born in 1948 in Cape Town. My father shipped out to South Africa, courtesy of the RAF Empire Training Scheme in 1940, met my mother, returned to England to become navigator/bomb-aimer on Wellingtons, got shot-up over Germany in 1941, bailed out, ended up as POW in Stalag Luft III near Sagan, was a tunnel-digger in the "Great Escape" saga, married my mother in 1946. Of course, all this made me, as a kid, determined to make flying my goal in life!

I managed to get selected for Airforce flying training after my schooling and a "lost" year at university (studying for Marine Biology! - I was very young-17- and into skindiving and spearfishing, then)  and finally ended up at SAAF Central Flying School, Dunnottar, near Springs in the Transvaal in early 1967, aged 18. Training was on North American Harvards (T-6s).  From the beginning I experienced severe airsickness and, in spite of some solo time (flying circuits only), I washed out after 35 hours flying time as medically unfit (Motion sickness/vestibular malfunction -still a problem for me to this day).

I returned to university and obtained a degree (BSc.) in Land Surveying and after articles and registration, headed North to (then) South West Africa (now Namibia), where vast tracts of wild and unmapped areas were still to be found. The next 14 years were packed with all sorts of excitement - avoiding assorted dangerous wildlife and terrorist insurgents, hunting, getting deeply involved in the (then) new sport of Practical Pistol Shooting ( I was fortunate to attend a course given by Col. Jeff Cooper, USMC Retd., the founder of the sport, in Windhoek in 1977) and attending the "World Shoot VI" Championships in Virginia, USA, in 1983 as a member of the SWA National team. Another great, although informal, sport I took to was riding off-road motorcycles ("scramblers") in the huge dunes of the Namib Desert. (Now that was adrenalin-inducing!).

I returned to Cape Town in 1989, and have lead a relatively boring life since then. In early 2010 I was "persuaded" to get a computer ("just for e-mail"). That's when I realised the advantage of knowing a friendly 5-year-old who could show an old fart how to turn the infernal device "on"!

About a month later, a nephew presented me with a copy of Microsoft CFS3, Persuaded me to get a basic joystick and I was hooked!

This was shortly followed by FSX, IL21946, Cliffs of Dover(now with the Team Fusion upgrades), Rise of Flight, DCS World (all modules to date), Ilya Muromets and, of course, Battle of Stalingrad (from the beginning of Early Access), a bigger computer, a 3rd, even bigger, computer, Track IR5, 3+1 monitor setup (Matrox), Logitech G940 Hotas (3 sets) and a few other bits I can't even name.

My basic computer knowledge is rather questionable, but I can get "flying" on all my sims and that, to me, is what is important.

I only operate off-line which probably saves me from a lot of embarrassment. I am pretty hopeless at "dogfight" type combat, but fairly okay with all other aspects of sim-flying. I have found that 90% of my "flying" is with BoS, since the early access began. The other 10% is spent on DCS when new modules are released. I believe that Bos has the most realistic Flight Models of all the sims I've tried.

 

I am now retired and my time is about evenly divided between my two Staffies and my flight sim setup.

 

Well, that's who I am, I hope I haven't bored you with my ramblings, 

Best wishes,

Derek.

[falstaff]

not to do it down......but there are a couple of people I would love to see post in this Oprah corner...

 

...I'm chuckling just thinking about it...

[mondog]

Bill, born '78 and from good old Blighty.

 

Been flying sims since the original IL2 and been around the IL2 community since 2004. Played IL2:FB to death and purchased every single version released, some at least twice! Used to play allot on the the old Warclouds server. 

 

Play DCS too. Currently trying to relearn the KA50 and eagerly awaiting the Su27 PFM. Flown with a few virtual squadrons, looking to again one day.  I also play EVE online a fair amount - it's the nearest thing I can get to what IL2 used to offer me for online play. 

 

Live with my girlfriend in Kent, don't have children, got a dog instead - a Bouvier des Flandres who is obsessed with water/mud/any liquid he can sit in. Because I'm actually allergic to dogs had to get one that doesn't produce hair like its going out of fashion. 

 

My other obsession is 1:16 RC tanks, to which I own a few. The modelling bit doesn't do to much for me but for some reason I find nothing more relaxing than airbrushing. Since these tanks are big, it takes allot of airbrushing. I'd like an Armortek but I don't own a garage for it and my man cave is too small for one. 

 

Favourite beer: Harveys Best.

 

 

 

 So 2005 started with EVE Online and dwelled into those big alliance fights, flew with and against Band Of Brothers for example, before Goons took them down in the well planned coup. 

 

Hello from Goons . Did you see the comic CCP did about that?

[DD_bongodriver]

not to do it down......but there are a couple of people I would love to see post in this Oprah corner...

 

...I'm chuckling just thinking about it...

 

Now I'd love to know who and why and what you will do about it.

[rigbyDerekb1948]

"just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water......"

[Yakdriver]

welcome Bongo and Rigby...

 

how about you two post your own life and flight sim stories?

[Densetsu]

Born '94. My older brother gave me his Amiga and since then I've been hooked to technology. I'm an animator by trade.

 

I have a confession.

 

I started playing IL-2 in 2004... but I never had a joystick. I played with a mouse and keyboard for 8 years. Turns out I could fly better than a lot of people but I just bought a new joystick so have to relearn everything. Lol.