PC Simulation over the Years: My Experience (Part 1)

It's been 22 years since my homeroom middle school teacher introduced me to the world of aviation, 21 years since I was introduced to the Windows OS (Windows 98, in fact), and it's now been 18 years since i was introduced to Microsoft Train and FS. Unfortunately, I have no MSTS Screenshots, but plenty of Flight Simulator. Growing up, I used to draw passenger jets, up to 2001-2002 actually, when I was introduced to Windows XP. Of course, my ma banned be from the PC because of the fact I wanted to be a flight simmer.

2006 rolled around when I began working at the Birmingham Kroger. At the time, I was using Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 on a low spec Dell laptop. I had a really cool store manager who temporarily let me borrow his 4 disc Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 set. Of course, it was futile, as the laptop was not powerful enough to run it. I returned it to the manager and back to FS2002 I went. around this time, i began taking screenshots.

Some of the earliest ones were from FS2002, such as this shot of American 11, departing LAX (Early Project Opensky Boeing 767-200 v4):

PC Simulation over the Years: My Experience (Part 1)

As well as this custom made splash screen of a Project Opensky Pan Am 747-121 (Version 1):

Around this time, I was introduced to a very beautifully modeled freeware Boeing 777 and 747-400 by Melvin Rafi, better known in the Flight Sim community as "MelJet", with the Boeing 777 series complete with a virtual cabin:

Virtual Cabin, Meljet Boeing 777-300 Worldliner

Boeing 777-300 Worldliner (House Livery)

The MelJet 747's, however, came without VC's. There was no way you could merge the default 747 Virtual Cockpit with the Meljet 747-400. There were two variants, the -400 Pax and -400F Freighter:

MelJet Northwest Airliners Boeing 747-451 (City of Detroit)

MelJet KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 747-406

MelJet United Airlines Boeing 747-422 (Battleship/Stealth Livery)

MelJet Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-412

MelJet Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-412 (FL330)

In 2009 I was able to finally get my hands on Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight. As the PC game was no longer being sold, I downloaded a copy from Piratebay. Around this time, a new variant of the 747 was being promoted, the -8i Intercontinental and -8F Freighter. Production of the Boeing 747-400 series had ended that summer.Many FS modellers were making variants of this new Intercontinental, the first of which was Andy Roesch's Boeing 747-8:

It had a primitive virtual cockpit.....a bare minimum. Project Opensky was in the works of making their variant of the 747-8, of which the first was the Freighter (as in real life):

And then suddenly........Project Opensky broke up. Everyone was in limbo on whether the passenger variant would be released....it took an entire year, but when the passenger variant was released it was under the SkySpirit2011 banner, with Hiroshi Igami as the modeller. This was my very first screenshot of the SkySpirit2011 Boeing 747-8i Intercontinental, departing Seattle-Tacoma for a 4 hour test flight:

SkySpirit2010 Boeing 747-8i Intercontinental Sunrise House Livery

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 opened a whole host of possibilities, including plugins, add-ons, and completely amazing screenshots, such as this shot of an Air Canada Airbus A320, using Active Camera:

Around this same time, I began using the PMDG 747-400 Software:

And simultaneously, replacing the Posky 747 Classics with the CLS (Commercial Level Simulations)

747-200/-300:

End of Part 1

PC Simulation over the Years: My Experience (Part 1)

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