Guest Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 It's not really a fair comparison 'cos a lot of us oldies have died off!! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted May 15, 2017 Author Share Posted May 15, 2017 JohnY so good to hear from you again. Where have been? Months and months without a whisper from you. I do hope all is OK with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venturi Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 It's a mixture but the older set tend to stick with orbx and hand fly low stress props and enjoy the scenery. The younger ones (30 plus) still use orbx but tend to fly IFR complex twins or pmdg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Jaycee said 'JohnY so good to hear from you again. Where have been? Months and months without a whisper from you. I do hope all is OK with you.' I didn't think it had been that long. Time really does fly when you're enjoying yourself. I'm fine thanks. Well, as fine as you can get at 84. Truth is I've been busy flying all over the place, seeing scenery I'll never have the chance of seeing in real life, or, again if I'm honest. And I've been trying to get the hang of PF3 ATC which is so much better than the default. All the best and keep well jjaycee. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterSuranyi86 Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 It's so great to see all age groups here! I've started with FS4 back in the day, and tried many different sims over the years, including Flight Unlimited II. And sometimes I wonder how far we gotten since those early days, it's amazing... Personally I am kind of a mixed bag, like Greg, I like GTA 5 for example, but sim flying is my all-time favourite thing. I think we can all be very grateful that we live in an age where we can enjoy our hobby in such level and detail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hwh86 Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 6 hours ago, JohnY said: Truth is I've been busy flying all over the place, seeing scenery I'll never have the chance of seeing in real life John, you hit thew nail on the head there. That is my motivation too, I have been to places I could never even dream of ever getting to in real life and that is priceless to me. I am probably the oldest among you at 86 and counting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeJay Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 I also had the impression all the time that I would be one of the youngest members in all those forums I've been in. Well, meanwhile I'm not sooo young anymore, but still surprised that I'm in the biggest "group" at 33 years now. I think you could say it this way: Among the young people there is only a very small group that does flight simming while most of the others are indeed focused on shooting games or something like virtual football games - which I was never ever keen on. I might always have been an exception here as I've loved flight simming since the first day when my parents made FS5 my birthday present on my father's PC because of my interest in airplanes when I was 10 years old. Thus, I still know exactly 0 people personally who actually virtually fly or who have any interest in airplanes. Most people don't even know that I do. I've always wondered if there would be a point when you're sick of it because it's always the same. But that point never came, or perhaps only for a shorter period of time. And while flying and waiting for one or the other new addon, I can hardly imagine that the beginning of it is now actually 21 years ago!! ...because there is always something new to discover, new technics, new airplanes with new features or new sceneries. I could hardly imagine any flight sim platform would ever be so popular (especially since Microsoft stopped developing their FS platforms) and so well supported, let alone that there would be more than one serious platform. And I have to disagree to one point on the original post: Prepar3D is getting better and better. And meanwhile it's stable enough - despite quite some OOM's - that it's fun again (ooops, sorry, having fun isn't allowed in P3D, I forgot ) - unlike FSX was in many regards. I'm not going to change to another platform so far (AF2 or XP), but I hope there will always be room for improvements and new features as new P3D versions come up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted May 16, 2017 Author Share Posted May 16, 2017 DeeJay: Some nice thoughts there. I hope your enthusiasm remains and that you can pass it on to some other younger folk. However, I see that under your avatar you are listed as "Senior Member" At 33 should you not be a Junior !!! Best regards from an old aged member Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olderndirt Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 79 next Tuesday and this is all nostalgia for me - a way to relive some of the good times in my flying past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ticker7 Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 On 27/04/2017 at 4:16 PM, John Venema said: Here is the website statistics for the last week showing sessions by age group: This clearly shows our senior customers are in the minority, not majority. Hope this answers your question. Hi John I'm just a little curious about these figures? do they take into account what I suspect are the many people who do not fly online or in any virtual airline or group as I would think there may be many hundreds of people of the older years who do just that and don't log onto the forums, so as normal with stats I'll take them with a pinch or two of salt ;-) Did anyone else think any similar thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted May 17, 2017 Author Share Posted May 17, 2017 Only that 63.14% of simmers are over 35, which i would put in the category of "older". The initial post was intended to see the splits between say youth versus adults. There are of course many in between, but the stats given tend to show that simming is more popular amongst the, again i say, older person rather than the youngsters, say teens through early twenties. No argument here intended so don't start a war ! i base my resulting opinion on my interpretation of "older" and the stats shown above.. Others in their mid 30s will no doubt resent being thought of as "older" I, in my 60s could resent being classed as old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulb Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 14 minutes ago, jjaycee1 said: Only that 63.14% of simmers are over 35, which i would put in the category of "older". The initial post was intended to see the splits between say youth versus adults. There are of course many in between, but the stats given tend to show that simming is more popular amongst the, again i say, older person rather than the youngsters, say teens through early twenties. No argument here intended so don't start a war ! i base my resulting opinion on my interpretation of "older" and the stats shown above.. Others in their mid 30s will no doubt resent being thought of as "older" I, in my 60s could resent being classed as old. Sorry, but you are old jjaycee! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted May 17, 2017 Author Share Posted May 17, 2017 Thank you young man. The advantage of being the age i am means that I am not of the generation that seems to take "offence" at anything and everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulb Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 8 hours ago, jjaycee1 said: Thank you young man. The advantage of being the age i am means that I am not of the generation that seems to take "offence" at anything and everything. LOL! Well, you are six months or so older than me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 Yeah, you two can talk but you're only spring chickens really. I'm worried myself. Why did my wife introduce me to the Taxidermist and Funeral Director last week?!! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulb Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 2 hours ago, JohnY said: Yeah, you two can talk but you're only spring chickens really. I'm worried myself. Why did my wife introduce me to the Taxidermist and Funeral Director last week?!! John LOL! Surely not both at the same time John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattH2580 Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 15 hours ago, jjaycee1 said: Only that 63.14% of simmers are over 35, which i would put in the category of "older". The initial post was intended to see the splits between say youth versus adults. There are of course many in between, but the stats given tend to show that simming is more popular amongst the, again i say, older person rather than the youngsters, say teens through early twenties. No argument here intended so don't start a war ! i base my resulting opinion on my interpretation of "older" and the stats shown above.. Others in their mid 30s will no doubt resent being thought of as "older" I, in my 60s could resent being classed as old. That is a very large category size difference though, as we're talking teens through early twenties being at most a 10 year category and the 35+ category spanning multiple decades. I would argue that the 25-34 category being the largest percentage settles the question on forum usage at least. For simming itself, unless we have statistics on sim time specifically I would say it is impossible to tell. It would be interesting to see the split between IFR/VFR for younger/older generations as well. I'm 21, and I generally fly IFR, although I started out on VFR and would like to go back to it soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted May 18, 2017 Author Share Posted May 18, 2017 @MattH2580 Interesting response sir. I won't argue with your summary, just to say that the number of generations doesn't alter the stats. Regarding IFR/VFR. An interesting aspect. I fly VFR for a number of reasons, and also tend to fly only a couple of planes. I realise that this choice is probably not common but is based on a couple of reasons. The first is that i spent/spend a lot of money on scenery addons, 98% of which are FTX. Having spent that money for Scenery, I want to look at the scenery that I have bought from an altitude that shows the details within that scenery. To buy a very detailed scenery addon and view it from 35,000 ft defeats the object in my opinion. For that scenario i would only invest in Global and OLC. Both those are world wide coverage and are far less demanding on PC resources. Those 2 addons I think are the perfect 2 addons for tube flying, and allow the unused rPC resources to be allocated to a detailed plane rather than a detailed scenery. My second reason regarding flying only a couple of planes is that in real life I have only ever flown a Cessna 152 and a Cessna 172. I flew them to train for a PPL but never finished the course. Bloody expensive, and the arrival of kids in the family took the cash !! So for me it is an extension of those early days of training in a plane I am familiar with. For me, flying a relatively simple plane allows me to sight see, which is the aspect i enjoy. I have never had ambitions to fly a commercial airliner. I have had dreams of being able to fly a Eurofighter/Typhoon hedge hopping over the Brecons as i see them every day where i live, but that is still only a dream that I would never be able to accomplish in real life. Flying a tube liner in P3D has never really appealed to me since once you are airborne I assume everything becomes automated after FMC settings and autopilot, as in real life. You actually fly the plane relatively little time, can't enjoy the detailed scenery you've bought, and as in real life as the pilot, have the opportunity to wander down the aisles and talk to the passengers etc. In the Cessna you are actually flying the plane for the whole duration. No rest for the pilot, and you can look down and see all the beautiful detailed scenery you have just spent good money on. I think that we will find so many different sim flying preferences from amongst our fellow simmers here on this forum and each will have their own very valid reasons for choosing their preference. I just thought I would share my preference and reasons for my preference. This is what makes flight simming so diverse versus for example racing car games, shoot em ups etc. And yes, I am in the 63%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Low Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 I am slap bang in the middle of the second highest category in John's forum list. I will be 50 years old at the end of July this year, and I started flight simming with Psion Flight Simulator for the 48k ZX Spectrum way back in December 1982. I was 15 years old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chumley Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 Wonder if the activity has been influenced by the product sale. What were the statistics like say 3 months ago? Comparable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alank Posted May 27, 2017 Share Posted May 27, 2017 It would seem it's not just flight simming that's for the older person ..... http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-26/outback-pilot-elderly-around-australia-solo-flight/8558136 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robwhitehead Posted May 27, 2017 Share Posted May 27, 2017 Well I am nearly 65 now, but I can remember all of those! [emoji3] SWOTL, Aces of the Pacific, Microprose F117, Apache Gunship and many more! [emoji4] CFS 1 and later! TFX was truly excellent! Also, please do not forget Falcon in its various incarnations starting with the Atari and Amiga. Noob, what is this Microprose F117? It was F-19 (they guessed the stealth bomber designation wrong, yes I know it was subsequently changed in a later version).Loved that sim, microprose gunship, gunship 2000.Chuck Yeager's air combat 'watch your six'.Still have a couple of mid-80s Macs with a copy of the original mac Microsoft flight simulator.Good times!Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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