Many things can change over ten years, and they did. I finished elementary school, high school, met new people, saw many places, and my personality developed. But one thing stayed the same: my passion for aviation, and flight simulators in general. How did I get here? If you want to hear my story, read further, as I decided to share how my life went in the last ten years, what I did to get into this interesting hobby, and where I am now. Perhaps your story may be similar.
Short Backstory
It all started quite simply. My father, one day in 2014, got me a model kit of an Air New Zealand Boeing 737-200, which we built together. At the time, I did not think much of aircraft, really. I built the model and went on with my life around Minecraft, as at the time, I loved that game. However, something had to stick with me for the two years, even though I did not even think of aeroplanes, up until 2016. And that’s exactly how it started.
It was the seventeenth of April 2016 when I, for the first time, started, you guessed it, Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Only the trial version I found somewhere on the internet, though. You had only two planes and two locations available in the simulator, I believe it was the CRJ and some place in the Caribbean. Thus, it has now been more than ten years between me starting a flight simulator for the first time and publishing this article.
Obviously, a child, knowing nothing of flight simulators, found it quite difficult to control an aircraft, especially as I didn’t know of a mouse yoke just yet. But something with the game clicked, and I started my research around it, what to do, what not to do. By June, I had purchased the FSX Steam Edition. That’s the time when I found out that default planes were not that good, and I asked my parents for PMDG 737 for my birthday, which I eventually got.
The PMDG 737 took me through a lot of flight hours. But if I were starting today, I’d probably take on a much simpler, general aviation plane. Well, I was obsessed with airliners, so no wonder I started big. From there, I started experimenting with other planes, such as the Aerosoft Airbus A320X Family or the PMDG 777.
In 2017, I managed to save up for a computer that could run Prepar3D, and switched over immediately. The familiarity of the FSX and Prepar3D engine made it easy to switch, and I wanted to make my simulator look as realistic as possible. I refrained from upgrading to Prepar3D v4 for quite a long time, as that thing seemed too unstable for me and there were too many issues compared to Prepar3D v3. Which is strange, as many people were telling me otherwise. I’ve been on Prepar3D v4 for a few months, until making the switch to X-Plane 11 and later Prepar3D v5.
We’re already in 2020 by this point. Microsoft announced the new generation of Microsoft Flight Simulator, and with the pandemic doing its thing even in my country, I was stuck with online school. What would you think I was doing during that time? Yes. Flying long hauls on Prepar3D. So as I was being examined by my economics teacher, I was, on the second monitor, departing my 777-200 flight from Mauritius to Vienna. Good times.
New Skills and Knowledge
Flight simulators are complex, and you need basic computer skills to actually troubleshoot things, as most of the time, the things happening to you won’t be happening to many other people. This is why you need a basic understanding of software and the capability to fix anything related to it. This includes the operating system, drivers, and the flight simulators themselves. Thus, the learning curve is not only steep with learning aircraft logic, but also with learning software logic.
Flight Simulator has taught me to understand the structural integrity of .xml files. I learned how to create .bat files to make a simulator autostart file, how to investigate and fix issues related to simulator crashes, drivers, and, if all things go wrong, reinstall Windows or update BIOS, chipsets, and so on. This became quite a valuable skill, as I am now the one repairing computers for people who know me, and you can make quite a bank out of it. And that’s not all.
Flight simulators are realistic engines, helping you understand more than what aeroplanes look like and that you can look out the window, find your house, or crash virtually into the house of a bully who stole your Milky Way bar in the second grade. It is going to teach you basic piloting skills, yes, but do not expect that you will be able to land a real plane just from flying flight simulators. That’s the biggest deceiving piece of information some people may give you.
I have, however, received a lot of knowledge about avionics, principles of flight, and geography. I have especially used this in my school life, as I still study at a university, focused on aviation engineering. In many aspects, I can easily imagine what would be going on in a simulator if I had the abstract description of some situation given. Thus, it helps to understand more easily what is going on with the aircraft, and ultimately, shortens the time spent behind a book.
Community
This has to be one of the most significant things in my life. People are strange, and flight simulators, as a hobby, divide people. Those who find it interesting will usually support it; those who don’t may laugh at you. Which may be painful at times, if you manage to ignore it, it is going to be simple. The best friendship bonds were found within the flight simulator community. I still talk frequently to people I have randomly met online ten years ago, and we are meeting in person as well at various air shows, or at school.
Having people around you with the same interests, in my opinion, makes your life a lot easier, and you have a lot of opportunities. Generally speaking, people involved in aviation and flight simulators are currently my best friends, with whom I have spoken for the mentioned decade, without any pause. Speaking of the opportunities, by knowing people, I could visit various places on my own, unknown to the general public, such as an air traffic control centre, a maintenance hangar for airliners, and much more. My interest in aviation has also brought me to FSNews and an aviation-related university.
Mirroring in Professional Life
If someone told 11-year-old me that I would write articles for FSNews and that I would be studying at a university related to aviation, he wouldn’t believe it. It all started as an act of curiosity, which suddenly went down a rabbit hole that I cannot get out of. I started working for FSNews back in 2019, essentially when the project became a thing with the help of George. I got here with the help of my friend Tomas, who is no longer a team member. Though I did not really like writing articles at first, being here for another 7 years probably says that I started to enjoy it and that I like what I do.
At the time, I was ending elementary school, and I was frankly uninterested in my education, as I was a kid who liked doing things on his own. However, one thing was certain at the time. If I were to go to university, I would choose one related to aviation. So before I chose the high school I wanted to go to, I already knew what university I wanted to go to. That’s how sure I was of my passion.
After a terrible decision of which high school I should attend, and somehow managing to finish it with all A’s, I had the opportunity to actually sign up for the mentioned university. And now, I am there, studying for my third year and will be finishing my Bachelor’s soon. Many people around me got to this aviation-related university without any interest, and that can be seen, as they feel all the things that we learn there are pointless. I feel it’s otherwise, but that’s because I try to understand the importance of knowledge in the aviation world. I cannot say that I never had stress in school, but I enjoy it, probably way too much.
The professors at the university also know about my work for FSNews and about my interest in flight simulators. One of them also told me to work closely with him on the flight simulators that we have at school, and that there are some job opportunities he could have for me if I prove myself. Thus, that is something I really want to work on in the near future.
Conclusion
The decade of me being involved in flight simulators and aviation in general has flown by extremely fast. I became a completely different person, have moved towns, met many new people and had many small personal projects on the way. Because of flight simulators, I managed to learn to speak English properly, became more interested in improving myself, and gathered more and more knowledge. Aviation is vast, so anybody will find their own thing they like in it.
And that is also my example. A kid, who had no interest in studying, who just wanted to waste his life on computer games, suddenly became somebody who is capable of studying at university and is thrilled to work. I may have been laughed at many times during my aviation journey, but I don’t regret a single second of being interested in this. I can also confidently say that I still see a bright future ahead of me in relation to aviation, as I would also like to start my flight training, and possibly move up to the airliners when I have the capabilities.
Do you have a similar experience? What was your journey with aviation and flight simulators? If you would like to tell us more, write it down in the comments. I am thrilled to read your stories.
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