It started in 1986 with FS II
Way back when computer graphics were rough (we didn't think so at the time though), I bought my first Flight Simulation program. At that time I owned an Atari ST computer and the year was 1986. SubLOGIC created a version of a flight simulator called FSII and I was immediately captivated with the skills of being a pilot. Taking off from Oakland Airport and flying up over the San Francisco Bay was something I loved to do.
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I did move on to Microsoft Flight Simulator in 1997 but work always seemed to get in the way of developing the time needed to master it's requirements.
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Then along came X-Plane.
I was now using Mac OS and had time. This simulator was something else. X-Plane is the world's most comprehensive and powerful flight simulator for personal computers. With the most realistic flight model available for home users, X-Plane is not just a game--it is an engineering tool that can be (and is) used to predict the flight characteristics of nearly any aircraft with incredible accuracy.
The same engine used to drive the FAA-certified simulator is available on your desktop PC, whether it's running Windows, Mac OS, or Linux.
X-Plane doesn't just regurgitate how an airplane's designer thinks a plane will fly--it calculates for itself the lift, drag, and forces exerted on every surface of the plane individually at every point in time. The result is a flight model more realistic than anything else out there.
The X-Plane community is huge, and the X-Plane simulator is incredibly flexible. There are thousands of free aircraft available for download on the web, and thousands of free plug-ins and custom scenery packages--all created by X-Plane users.

Video
Click to see latest video I made of a flight from Squamish to Vancouver in a Cessna 172.
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Weather is variable in X-Plane from clear skies and high visibility to thunderstorms with controllable wind, wind shear, turbulence, and micro bursts. Rain, snow, and clouds are available for an instrument flying challenge, and thermals are available for the gliders. Actual weather conditions can be downloaded from the Internet, allowing users to fly in the weather that currently exists at the location of the flight!
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Using custom imagery at a resolution of an amazing 1 meter per pixel, every landscape feature, road and building is visible in glorious photographic detail. Flying over the teeming metropolis of London and its myriad of suburbs in vivid detail. In addition to every town and city, the panoramic vista of the coastline and thousands of square miles of pastoral  tranquility will pass beneath your wings. From city to countryside, from coastline to crop fields.
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X-Plane is extremely customisable, allowing users to easily create textures, sounds, and instrument panels for their own airplane designs or for the planes included with the sim.