Wow MX, and you wonder why you infuriate this board so much.

I think the biggest fact that your missing here is that for us 'real
pilots', flying is among the greatest and most visceral passions in
our lives... The piloting community is linked primarily by passion
and emotion for our past-time, not simply policy and procedure.

Why else do you think we dedicate such a high percentage of our lives
resources to one hobby?

Yes.

In my case, I consider going to and from the airport to be boring. I consider
not being close to home at the end of a flight to be hugely inconvenient. I
consider paying $250 an hour for each hour of flight to be very stressful. I
consider having to spend thousands of dollars and trudge through endless
paperwork just to be allowed to fly to be unacceptably onerous. I consider a
requirement that one be in Olympic condition to get a license to be an
unnecessary burden. I consider the inaccessibility of ownership of an
aircraft to be a major disappointment. I consider the possibility of being
killed to be an uncomfortably high risk. I consider the absence of bathrooms
on some aircraft to be a major inconvenience.

And right here you have just proved that you 'don't get it'... People
here do not value your opinion because, quite frankly, why should they
listen to some cocky 'arm-chair pilot' who is telling them how to do
what they eagerly and willingly accept each and every one of the
inconveniences and risks you mention to do because it simply means
that much to them? You have just admitted that you don't have the
passion for flight, stop telling us that we shouldn't either.

These are some of the reasons why I fly in simulation. Simulation preserves
most of the parts I like, while eliminating the parts I don't.

I flew flight simulators from the time I was 8 until I was 23.
Simulators are _sorry_ excuses for reality, that is a simple truth.
ALL they are good for is teaching some of the more mundane aspects of
aviation in a sterile, passionless environment. If those pedantic
details are all that interests you about aviation... well, I'm sorry.
But you absolutely need to understand that there is far more why we
fly than anything that can be portrayed in simulation...

Lots of people engage in simulation of lots of things, for similar reasons.
Many people engage in combat simulations, for example, because real combat has
too many disadvantages.

People take their combat simulations pretty damn far (airsoft,
paintball) because combat simulations suffer the same lack of
'experience' that flight simulations do.

Flying is a challenge in simulation, too. I'm surprised by how many people
cannot successfully take off or land in a simulator. This includes some
pilots, or at least the ones who have become dependent on physical sensations
(tin-can pilots and the like).

Its not about the challenge, its about simply 'being up there' with
all of the rights, privileges, and responsibilities entitled therein.

Simulation only works if you take it seriously.

I'll even go so far as to say that people who consistently treat simulation as
mere gaming may also treat real flight the same way, because this has its
basis in their personality. The same type of personality that blows off
checklists in simulation because "it's not real life, anyway," may also do the
same thing in real life, with some similar dismissal as rationalization.

That is a tremendously arrogant assumption for someone who has already
shown that he has absolutely no concept as to what motivates private
pilots.

Reality might also be the least desirable part of the experience.

How would you know?

How can you not see how tremendously infuriating it is to those of us
who willingly and happily spend a third of our lives resources flying
for the passion and meaning it brings our lives to have some 'kid'
with no comprehension of why we do it constantly second guessing and
trying to one-up us?

If you would keep your postings to simple questions and
clarifications, that would be one thing, but then to completely
discount the entire reason that we do it in the first place? And you
wonder why this board is so rude to you.

I find a racing pulse to be a distraction. There is much about flying to
appreciate, and having one's thoughts clouded by adrenalin ruins many of those
things. It's hard to appreciate the beauty of the Rocky Mountains when you
are hurtling towards them uncontrollably.

No, it costs more in real life than in a simulator simply because it is real
life, and the expensive parts cannot be deleted.

I'm surprised so many people mention the danger of flying as an attraction.
They must be high in testosterone. Personally, I think that if you feel
yourself at risk or in danger while flying, you're doing something wrong.


So you are a thrillseeker. Quite a few GA pilots seem to be thrillseekers.
But we know what the safety experts say about them, don't we?

In my view, if my pulse is racing and I'm sweating, I've failed as a pilot.

You mistake the simple passion of experience for some form of
irrational thrillseeking. Pilot's don't fly because its dangerous,
pilots fly because they can FLY... There really is no other way to
describe it...

Actually:

Consider this MX- To us, it feels like you are an intentionally deaf
(earplugged) person arguing with us about the sound of a symphony.
Sure, you can understand an learn all of the instruments, their
ranges, the music theory behind them, and you might even be able to
compose a few interesting pieces. You can get a lot 'in simulation',
and much of it is even admirable knowledge.

That said, you continue to argue with those of us who enjoy listening
to music about the value of ACTUALLY EXPERIENCING the music. If you
simply wanted to learn music theory that is one thing, but instead,
you actually cast judgment about the value of experiencing the very
act for which you have a passion for the mundane theory. Of course
we're going to think you're an arrogant prick- until you take the
earplugs out of your ears and go have a listen to the experience of
aviation, you've completely lost the forest for the trees.

I hope airline pilots don't feel this way.

I never picked up professional photography out of fear for loosing my
passion for it. Similarly, I would never fly professionally out of a
similar fear.

It is the passion that drives us, it is the experience that drives
us. There is nothing more beautiful than experiencing our world from
the heavens, everything else is just details.