2018 Flight Sim survey

[jomni]

No. It's not all about combat flight sims but some items include them. Interesting results.

The typical flight simulator enthusiast is a 43 year old male from the United States. He flies simulators 2-3 times per week for about 5-10 hours in total and was introduced to flight simulation 20 year ago. There is a 27% likelihood he already has some sort of pilot license. If so, he was introduced to flight simulation before he pursued his pilot license. Moreover he has a bachelor's degree, is full time employed, makes 50,000 USD per year before tax, and spends about 250 USD on software and 200 USD on hardware annually. He prefers X-Plane 11, but Prepar3D v. 4 is also popular.

http://blog.navigraph.com/post/181243982766/flightsim-community-survey-2018-results

[Destraex]

Oh wow. Only Yankees like flight sims. I feel special :)

[Toonces]

Boy, that was a really cool read.  Thanks for posting!

[DoctorQuest]

It was very interesting. I am way below average on my hobby spending, though. Glad to see I'm not the only one still flying fs2004. I did spend a bit on add-ons for that back in the day.

BMS even had a line!

[Destraex]

Doctorquest, I hope you are buying a real aircraft with all that saved money.

[DoctorQuest]

Flying lessons, actually.

[Destraex]

I did that once and decided it was too expensive. That spending money on sims was much more efficient.

[DoctorQuest]

I completely understand, Destraex. I may end up being in the same situation myself. This is a bucket list thing for me. We will see how it goes.

[Father Ted]

So I consider myself a flight simmer (main reason for buying a PC - have a bunch of peripherals as well), but I don't feature on this report coz I exclusively fly combat flightsims.  Would be interesting to know what proportion of the community have a similar profile.

[DoctorQuest]

*Raises hand*

[Skoop]

I actually started flightsims only doing combat as well.  The f15 and gunship on my C64 in the 80s.  Stopped all gaming during during my first 10 years of adulthood cause I did nothing but travel and surf.  Then return in 1999 to wargaming and flightsiming when reality set in and had to join the work force.  When I returned, it was original il2.  Then graduated to Dcs.  Once I master Dcs, I figure hey why not try commercial Sims  like xplane and prepare.  My interest in flight simming has grown to the point of, it's not if, it's when I get my pilots license.  Seriously think I should have done aviation as a career, seriously considering it as a post retirement career.  In the meantime, flightsims all the way.

[Toonces]

^ If you're looking to get into flying as a career, there is no better time in the U.S. than NOW.  Do it sooner rather than later.

I started with civilian flight sims, the old SubLogic Flight Simulator on my Atari 1200XL and working up from there.

I am mostly a combat flight sim guy, but for a few years there when I was in Hawaii I got pretty heavily into flying civilian airliners to the point I joined a virtual airline.  I have never been able to adequately explain it, but there is/was something extremely soothing about driving a civilian 737 or MD88 through the virtual skies. 

And, as with the survey, I actually preferred the short-haul airliners and shorter routes.  More interaction with the cockpit I suppose.

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole civilian PPL thing, but I definitely encourage any simmer to spend the $100 to get a flight in an airplane, takeoff and land, and pull some G's.  I still remember the first time I flew a real airplane after decades of simming, the noise, the forces on the stick, just how much is going on beyond what you can possibly imagine having only done it looking at a computer screen.

[Skoop]

^ I agree I scoffed civilian flight simming for years, but when the scenery and graffics got so good I gave it a try and was surprised at how entertaining it was. The description of soothing flying airliners is spot on.

Aviation career will have to wait, I make more in my current job than a senior airline captain plus I have a hefty pension waiting at the end.  Actually dream come true would be if my employer expanded to the point of taking on aerial firefighting with air tankers, then I could get qualed in that to finish off my career. 

[GDS_Starfury]

I think playing Tie Fighter should count as a flight sim.

[Gusington]

Me too.