Hi steemians!!! Let me introduce myself before we get to the fun stuff!
My name is Jeroen, 34 years old and I live in The Netherlands. After finishing school I didn't really know what to do, so I applied to the military academy to become an army officer. Not completely sure how, but after a 4-year struggle I finally managed to succeed and got myself some shiny stars on my shoulders. After being in the signal corps for a couple of years as a lieutenant I left the army in 2013, 10 years after the adventure started. I had a really good time, especially in the academy and now I'm in commercial business, I often look back at great times of comradeship. Currently I'm an engineer in satellite communications, something I got involved in during my last few years in the army. During my years at the academy, I got to know our fellow steemian 
Whenever I got some freetime I go out on my motorcycle, play my baritone horn in a show band or - what this profile will be all about - flight simulation!
So, why starting a blog about flight simulation? Well, like many of us, I'm sure, I always wanted to become a pilot when I was a kid. Most of us eventually don't follow that road, and so didn't I. Maybe I should have joined the air force instead, I don't know. But I always kept looking to the skies whenever a plane went by, thinking of how it would be...
Well, now I know how it feels to fly like a bird and experience ultimate freedom. A few years ago, a colleague of mine introduced me to a friend of his who just got his pilot licence. He had to make some hours to be able to 'level up' so I was asked to join him on a short evening flight from my local airport. We met at the flight club and hopped into the plane. While we were preparing, I noticed he was somewhat surprised by the amount of knowledge I already had about the aircraft and aviation in general, including flying procedures and radio communications with air traffic control. I didn't really mean to impress anybody at that time, but a little while later I came to the conclusion that I learned quite a lot over the last couple of years while 'playing' my flight simulator at home.
When I was only 10 years old or so, I sometimes spent some time at a friend's place and computers were still uncommon in these days. His dad worked at the Fokker factory at that time, an aircraft manufacturer from The Netherlands, and he owned a pc (must have been pre-386 or so) with an orange monochrome display and large 5.25" floppies with Microsoft's Flight Simulator. Very basic and of course we new very little about flying back then. A couple of years later, when the pc was a bit more common and became mandatory for students, I played around with Microsoft's Flight Simulator 4.0. With VGA graphics and 16-bit sound blaster audio, it was an advanced piece of software in those days. The world basically was a big mesh and some wireframe buildings were modelled on top of it. Green was land, blue was water. And the small black bar in the distance had to be the runway you were aiming for. But also then, I never used it as a simulator. I was playing around and I'm sure some of you also tried to fly inverted between the two large antennas on top of Sears tower in Chicago.
The years after, I didn't really spend much time with flight simulators. But a few years ago, I think it was 2009, I found out the flight simulators were much more advanced, graphically enhanced and much more realistic. Photorealistic ground scenery, 3D virtual cockpits and, the most appealing to me, real air traffic control (ATC). Although the simulators had a very basic ATC functionality, it wasn't very realistic. After some more reading on the topic I discovered a complete new immersive world: online flying networks with ATC services. For free. These networks (there are multiple, more on that later) provide a multiplayer experience in the virtual skies with real people providing realistic ATC using a radar client and voice communications. So the only requirements were a computer running a compatible simulator, an Internet connection and a headset. Yes, you can use text, but I don't want to recommand that to anyone as it breaks immersion quite a bit. Of course, if you have any disability you can use it if you have to, but I strongly encourage anyone to use voice when able.
I just mentioned there are multiple online flying networks out there. The largest being IVAO (International Virtual Aviation Organization) and VATSIM (Virtual Air Traffic SIMulation network). I don't want to discuss the differences here, but when I discovered their existence, I just went with the latter. So, my experiences are based on using the VATSIM network, but I'm assuming they would be similar using IVAO. Just go with the one you like the most.
Let's go back to our real life flight from my local airport with that guy I just met! As said, he was surprised by my knowledge and I started to explain I was using my home flight simulator in a realistic way, using detailed aircraft, real world procedures and radio communications with ATC. Once airborne, he handed control of the airplane to me and whilst I had never controlled an aircraft before, it felt very natural and confident. Just like my simulator! Obviously this is a bit simplistic, but the difference really wasn't that big. The only thing I couldn't simulate at home was the feeling and movement of the aircraft, which makes it even a little bit easier to control in real life than from my desk chair. After this first flight, we did some more. I was handling radio communications on all flights and I was even able to successfully perform a few touch and goes and finally landed the plane to a full stop, without any intervention. Normally I wouldn't be able to do so without proper flying lessons, but my flight simulation efforts payed off and I did it!
My goal will eventually be to get my real life private pilot licence within a couple of years from now. Hopefully my blogs on Steemit can contribute a little bit as well. In future blogs I will explain the basics of a decent home flight simulator. Then I will touch various topics to get you up and running with your virtual flying experience. And maybe one day you'll benefit from your flight simulator skills too. I'm 100% convinced it will help me during flying lessons and it may even shorten the amount of time I need to get that license. Upvote, follow me and stay tuned!