I begun my virtual flight career with Microsoft Flight Simulator ~1994 and Chuck Yeagers Air combat. From the moment I could fight the "Abbeville Boys" with their yellow nosed 109s I was hooked on WW2 aviation and especially the german fighters.
When I discovered Air Warrior III in 1997 the flight sim frenzy escalated. I split my time after school with AW3, European Air War, Screaming Deamons over Europe and Jane´s WW2 Fighters. Then I discovered the online possibility in EAW and WW2 fighters. It was like magic; to be able to fight real people from all around the world was heaven. Everything was perfect except my mothers phone bill. :/
All those titles were abandon when I ran into an interview on Combatsim.com about a new title from some obscure russian guy named Oleg. I just saw a screenshot that supposedly showed a russian ground pounder. It was green and ugly on the picture. But from then on my live was all about Il2.....and Counter Strike.
I gave up the huge realm of CS when the younger crowd became more numerous. Il2 still had a slightly higher average age.
My IRL friends took off along the road of mainstream; first person shooters, RTS, RPGs and so on. I was all alone in the online sky with my dear Il2. Especially in Sweden, compared to the US and GBR, the interest of WW2 aviation was not that profound. Therefore I had to fly with some great guys 6-8 time zones away to be able to experience real fighter combats with team tactics, which didn't help my studies very much. :/
But then, I think it was 2002 or 2003 I met up with a great guy, Petter_Gul from Sweden that had formed F16, the virtual swedish virtual fighter squadron. So since then I´ve flown with F16 and F19 created by Klunk that helped out with the J8A Gladiator.
When I read your own stories I can really feel and understand the greatness of Il2. So many people can thank Il2 for long term friendship and mutual respect that all those years of flying together has resulted in.
During my whole virtual career I´ve used the call sign Ramrod up until recently when I just used my first name Simon.