My name is Roger, I'm 63 and live in east-central Florida. I'm a husband of 1 for 37 years, a father of 4, a grandpa to 18, and a great-grandpa to 7. It's a big family reunion around here!
I got my ears wet flight simming with my Commodore-64, a 12" color portable tv, and two Atari joysticks back in the early eighties and have never looked back. From there it was a pc with FS95, 98, 2k, and eventually FSX. I flew exclusively on the pc's with the keyboard until just about 5 years ago when I acquired a joystick. Then it started getting serious. Wow what an improvement! Then a couple more joysticks. Garage sales can be awesome! I only used one for the joystick but all three for the switches. I just had to remember what switch did what, but it was cool! I then got another one, a duplicate of one I already had. Just happened to be the one with the most switches! I had plans for this one. GUT IT! I fabricated my own rudder petals and yoke. It all worked pretty good considering it was all held together with wood screws, glue, and wires. I was moving up in the world! Then... a couple years ago I saw a used Saitek bundle being sold on Ebay. I Still use the rudder petals and the built in seat that comes with it, but my yoke is long gone. And then a month ago, the best thing I could have ever imagine experiencing on my sim: PilotEdge. Live ATC from a real person. I have found the missing link! So now I have to follow the rules and un-program myself of decades of bad habits. I've always considered myself a good pilot and don't really have that many bad habits but this Cat-10 I'm looking at scares me a bit!
My first RW airplane ride was in a 172 with the pilot and my two sons. A 30 minute plane ride around town was my father's day present that year. The tail number... N7365? I have no idea what the last character was. My son was blocking it in the picture of the occasion. So, with my last initial being W it was only a logical choice, right. Thus Cessna 182 N7365W was created. Yes, I have looked up that tail number and it belongs to a cherokee in RL but I don't care!

As far as real world experience I got serious in the late 80's, starting with ground school at Palm Beach Community College. I then passed the exam and signed up to be able to call myself a student pilot. After 7 hours officially logged in my logbook I had to quit with the lessons. Reality got the best of me and I didn't make the money to support a family of 6 and take flight lessons. I have to say that even as my simulator was back then, still my C64, I remember my CFI telling me how advanced I seemed to have been. At 7 hours she was telling me I would probably solo around 12 hrs. FYI... Plane rental, wet, was $27/hr back then. If I remember right, the instructor was like $35 or somewhere in there. You probably couldn't find somebody to clean the windscreen for that these days!

Okay... I will shut up. Blue skies, and I will see you all online!