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Let us know a little about yourself; your flight sim (if any), your flight sim hours, your preferred sim, favorite plane, your interest in aviation; whatever strikes you! -------------------------------------------------------------------- Cousins on my mother's side are several generations of Aeronautical Engineers. In fact, it was her cousin's family who designed and built the fuel tank conversions that went on Amelia Earhart's plane. In addition to being aeronautical engineers, they are also private pilots and several other family members are as well. During the 1980s, when the Experimental Aircraft / "build one in your garage" craze was in full swing, my cousins designed and built a couple plans-built aircraft, including the E-Racer, the Wichhawk, and the Javelin V6. They were mentioned in prominent Sport Aviation magazines, such as "Air Progress" and "Kitplanes". They lived in a development where the houses surround a private runway and there is a hanger in each back yard. It was here that they took me up in one of their planes when I was a teenager -- and I have been hooked ever since! I have a great deal of interest in the Sport / Experimental aviation segment and find some disappointment at its slow death; and enjoy reminiscing about such planes as the Vari-Eze, the Dyke Delta, the Glassair and Lancair, Velocity, Quickie, Breezy -- and a leading candidate for my all-time favorite, Van's RV-3 -- and too many other cool designs to mention. My interest eventually expanded to civil (Cessna, Beech, Piper) and then commercial aviation. I have gained fascination with air crash incidents and investigations. Once a week, I volunteer at a local aviation museum and help them by working their gift shop. I am not a qualified pilot myself for many reasons, chief among them finances and bad eyesight, but have a couple hundred hours with PC-based flight simulators. In my youth, I did devour multiple flight manuals: Kershner's, Cessna's, Stick and Rudder, to name a few. I've never owned a quality simulator myself -- mostly because I am too "responsible" to splurge on myself. My first introduction was about 1992; an Amiga flight simulator featuring the Cessna 172. I have wanted my own flight simulator ever since and with this year's tax refunds and stimulus checks, I fully intend to discard notions of responsibility and make this desire a reality. At one point, I did own an acceptable PC with an ultracheap joystick and 15" monitor and did enjoy a couple simulators; one of them being B17: The Mighty 8th, which awakened my interest in WWII period aircraft and helped me greatly appreciate what our flyboys went through during that terrible war. Another one was IL2 Sturmovick, in which I flew in mutliplayer internet-based platforms. I completely stunk at it; which is to be expected when one is trying to fly with a 15" monitor and $25 joystick. That's about it for me.

New computer. Been wanting one for many years; and now is the time to take the plunge! FSX Steam; Yes, there are better out there, but FSX aircraft creation is open source, so there are hoards of aircraft available! Minor periphreals: Macro keypad, keyboard, new trackball (mine's going out), headset (I want to fly with VATSIM) A conference style table to put it on with velcro to hold stuff in place Flight peripherals. I'd prefer Saitek Yoke/throttle/rudder pedals, but that's a little pricey; so I may have to settle for a Thrustmaster set Big screen TV (as multiple monitors of sufficient size is a little pricey -- I'm on a budget!) The TV for cockpit and a standard monitor for instruments I should be able to get this all accomplished with my stim checks and tax refunds, if I commit to it instead of recklessly or responsibly spending and wishing later that I should have gotten it done! I think I can