Visiting the South West Flight Sim Group
Introducing a regular real world meet-up of flight simulation enthusiasts.
I have been tinkering with flight simulation software on a variety of computers since my teens - starting with “Flight Sim 737” on the 8 bit MSX in the early 1980s, then through “Flight Simulator 2” and “Proflight” on the Atari ST, and subsequently the various versions of Flight Simulator, X-Plane, and multitude of military simulators on the PC.
And then I got married. And had children.
While the children were small I rarely got the chance to meddle with flight simulation at home any more. I only had an old computer - affectionately titled “Trigger’s Broom” after a joke in the sitcom “Only Fools and Horses” - and the funds to buy a better one always seemed to get re-routed to shoes, school clothes, after school clubs, and so on.
While the children were small we would visit my parents on the coast and discover the room with the computer desk was transforming itself further and further into the flight deck of an airliner - with dials, switches, levers, headsets, microphones, printed flight plans, log sheets and all manner of other materials surrounding ever-more-powerful computers.
Since retiring, it’s fair to say my Dad had become a bit more than “just interested” in flight simulation - he had also discovered a local real-world group that met up to share their interest with each other - the “South West Flight Sim Group”. Once a month he would disappear for the day, and come back with a head full of ideas, and a shopping list.
Following a computer upgrade in about 2019, I inherited my Dad’s old computer and suddenly had something capable of running a half-decent flight simulator for the first time in a decade. I bought X-Plane and Prepar3D, and the first videos started appearing on YouTube from me - mostly by accident. A friend had asked if I might record the start-up procedure for the Zibo 737 in X-Plane. Thus began perhaps the deepest rabbit hole ever witnessed by the human eye.
Three years and five hundred videos later I had amassed over 20,000 subscribers on YouTube, and my Dad discovered quite by chance that the members of the club he visits had been watching them.
And that’s how I came to visit the South West Flight Sim Group myself earlier this year. Visting my parents for a long weekend, I tagged along with my Dad to one of the meetups and got to meet a fantastic group of knowledgeable and enthusiastic “flight simmers”.
Some of them had brought their computers to the meet-up - along with monitors, controllers, and so on - and were running various instances of Flight Simulator, X-Plane and DCS for anybody to try out. A variety of second-hand hardware was available for purchase (I was sorely tempted), and the entire collection of books, maps, and aviation related materials owned by a member that had recently died. Oh how I wished I had taken some cash with me.
The latter purchase of the Pooleys pilot textbooks was a direct result of my visit - remember what I said about my Dad invariably returning from the club with a head full of ideas?
I’ve been twice now.
It makes such a difference to meet up in-person. While Facebook and Discord serve their purpose admirably, there’s something about meeting face to face - sharing experiences, telling stories, laughing, commiserating, and so on.
So!
If you have been bitten by the flight simulation bug and live anywhere near the south-west of England, the South West Flight Sim Group really is worth a visit. Just remember that you’ll come home with a head full of expensive ideas :)
Here’s some links to find out more about them:
Visit their Website (includes location, calendar, etc)
Read their Newsletter
Join their Discord Server
Join their Facebook Group