A POLE: How long have you been flying IL-2
 

Hi everybody:

I thought this would be a fun pole. First just say how many years months or days you have been flying this IL-2 series then tell your story. In my experiences the huge fans of this sim tend to have very entertaining ones. To use the term fan boy about these people me myself included is insulting in my opinion.

I guess this isn't a pole just your stories. I edited this part after a couple of members asked where the pole was. :)

I've played IL-2 since the demo was released, summer 2001 I think it was. It took me all night to download the demo on my 56k modem but boy was it worth it. Best thing I remember was the sense of speed and flight when I swooped down near the ground in the P-39, absolutely amazing at the time. I ended up buying an Elsa Gladiac 920 Geforce 3 64 MB, that set me back about 300-350€ or something but it was soooo worth it.:grin: Good times.

Since 2001. I gave up when Pacific fighters came out as I was uninterested in that theatre and the jungle and desert maps were ridiculous. The best time I ever had was just before Forgotten Battles came out and we did 109 versus P39 fighter sweeps. The P39 could out climb the 109 at speed and it was a good fight. When FB came out suddenly aircraft all became weightless and I do remember trying to land a 109 and flaring for what seemed ages landing in a field past the runway.

After FB came out I remember always waiting for the patch that would fix the sily FM issues we had. Lack of energy bleed and red aircraft that hung on the prop still shooting with accuracy. I got tired of waiting for the nex t'fix it all patch' and moved on to combat missions and aother games.

Got IL-2 2005 and a bit later on Pacific Fighters. Played the latter for atleast 500+ hours.
But after playing CloD i´ve never touched it again.

Since demo... By the way the very first flight sim I was using was ACE on my commodore C64 :)

2001 I think, long time anyway. Thousands of hours over the years, in its heyday, with the online wars, I spent around 40 hours a week flying missions.
It was a complete and utter obsession, and I have not touched it since CoD was released.
I hope the new series will keep me going for the next decade.

I've flown IL-2 since the first beta test days. To long ago to remember exact date. I haven't flown IL-2 too much for the last few years, at it has gotten old. Still waiting for COD to be completed to get back into flying alot. I really like the new game engines features and it should eventually develop into the next benchmark in WW2 aircombat simming.

Since the Demo,Dawn of Aces before that.:rolleyes:

2001. I remember it well. Loved the thought of flying but knew the inner ear is shot so bought a flight sim instead :) . After downloading I was in my element for years. Joined a squad and became obsessed. It was a funny night when I downloaded teamspeak. I didn't want to activate it because I thought that I would have children in my ear whilst flying. Couldn't believe that everyone in my squad were grown men, around my age.
Absolutely loved having squad nights against other squads throughout the world. Went out and paid $6000 for a new comp specifically to fly IL2. That lasted years and years. Also purchased rudder pedals.
Loved jumping in the COOP area in Hyperlobby with others. As with squad nights, it caused me to fly differently because I didn't want to get shot down quickly.
Since CoD, I haven't been back to IL2. Just wanting CoD to get up to par and then get back into a squad and fly against other squads. Can't wait. :)

I was quite a late-comer. I was aware of the game when it came out and desperately wanted to play it - I couldn't because my computer was below spec - it only had a 4MB videocard (recommended 16MB I think) !!:)

I spent a really frustrating couple of years as I wasn't able to upgrade the PC. Finally got into it when 1946 came out and then seemed to do without sleep for 2 years as I investigated every facet of the game and made up for lost time!