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

[Flanker35M]

S!

Since beta..logged heaps of hours during the years until burned out on flight simming altogether. Took a break and now waking the interest again, but with less intensity as in the "crazy years"

[Gribbers]

Since the demo in 2001...downloaded to my laptop overnight and used to play a few sneaky single player games (with keyboard and mini mouse) during lectures.

Can't even remember how I first heard of IL2, never had any passion for flight sims before, but was hooked by the fact it was difficult to play at first, took me many attempts to take off successfully (again using keyboard and mouse only) and felt so rewarded just making a basic flight around a populated airfield (take-off, circuit and landing).

Bought my joystick (Cyborg Pro Evo) a year later and it's still serving me well.

[Untamo]

S!

Tested in 2001/2002, but did not have proper machine to play it on any settings. Had no Internet connection so didn't know anything about the huge community it had created :-/

Tested PF when it got out, then I had a better machine of course so played some single player, but still no Internet connection

In 2008 when I got my first job, I talked about sims with my work buddy, he had similar interests so we decided to try and see what this online playing had to offer. Bam! We were in a squad and have been flying actively since then

-LLv34_Untamo

[SFF_Vellu]

Hello!

My first experience of flight simulator was The Finest Hour The Battle of Britain in year 1990. Computer what I used then was AMIGA and if I remeber right I haven't joystic that I flew using keyboard and mouse. After that when I had PC I flew CFS1 and CFS2. Before IL2 I also flew Rowans Mig Alley and I started IL2 in the Winter 2002.
Since Winter 2002 I have flown all versions and mods of the IL2.

[brando]

Half a dozen of us in the same squad quit from flying Warbirds and Dawn of Aces on-line and migrated over to fly IL2 Sturmovik when it came out. And never looked back!

Funniest thing I ever saw was in a Cross-country team race. It had no externals On and we had to land and search for clues to the next waypoint. We were in Corsairs I think, and had to all land in a Japanese town: the clue was located in a Japanese temple. One of us taxied up to the temple, folded the wings, and rolled inside, where the grid reference was to be found. He got it and we all wrote it down. Three of us (out of four) had taxied into side roads to keep the main road clear for him to take off first. He taxied out and rolled....and rolled.... and, just as he was saying "Jeez, I can't get any lift?" his plane hurtled past us with its wings still folded.

I'm ashamed to say that we three just hooted with laughter - my sides hurt just thinking about it - and our mate ended nose up in a rice paddy on the edge of the town. We lost our first place and came second overall - but we didn't care. It was just another Saturday afternoon spent having great fun with a bunch of friends from all over the world, in the best flightsim going

[BaronBonBaron]

Since um, about June 2011, lol.

Yeah, I'm a latecomer to the series.
My first sim was FSX I got for Christmas 2010.

[Luftwaffepilot]

I started in late 2010 with IL-2 1946.

Had been playing CFS 1 about 8 years ago. And of course FS 2004 a bit.

So I'm a big newbe to flight simming.

[Deadagain]

Since original B17 game (and the board game version before that)Il2 since the begining and EAW,Flanker .

[VO101_Tom]

I join the "Since demo" club . The first information I've read, was in the PC Format magazine. iirc was around 2000. At the end of 2002 I joined to the VO101, i never forget the bloody VEF 2 battles over the East-Front Since then, it is the only game that all the time is installed on my PC (even if my squadron is quite scattered, and only a few times started since i bought the clod...)

[DB605]

Originally Posted by VO101_Tom

I join the "Since demo" club .

Another demo club member here.