I’ve been a lifelong gamer, and for years that’s exactly how I treated flying in sims: as a game.
I always enjoyed aviation, but it wasn’t until Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 on Xbox that something shifted. I found myself going back and forth, learning what the buttons on the Garmin G1000 actually did and then testing them in the sim. For the first time, I wasn’t just playing. I was trying to understand.
I became obsessed! All I thought about for months was aviation. I feel as if I searched all of YouTube for aviation-related videos and consumed it all! That curiosity eventually led me to the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. Surprisingly, reading it really quenched that initial thirst. It gave structure to what had only been fascination before.
After that, I discovered AOPA and EAA and joined both. Over time, I realized AOPA would probably serve me better once I actually had my pilot certificate, but EAA became something more immediate and personal. I’m still a member of EAA Chapter 690, where I first volunteered in the kitchen. One thing led to another, and now I run the kitchen operation and also help with the chapter’s flight simulator group, Sim Eagles.
What started as gaming turned into genuine aviation passion, community involvement, and eventually a flight sim business. See what’s on the horizon for tabletop ANDROID.