I've had my first couple of days behind the controls of a real train. I've been driving since MSTS from a young age and recently switched careers to become a train driver. I'm based in the Netherlands. I was amazed by how familiar it felt to sit behind the controls, and how well i actually drive the trains. My mentors didn't believe it was my first time driving trains. They were actually bored because they didn't have to intervene. Fluent stops at stations, following signals and speed restrictions, it all went naturally. Many people believe consumer train simulators are just games, but having witnessed how much it helped me on my journey, i know it's more than that. It's amazing to live in times like these, where consumers have access to sims like TSW which can act as study-level on some aspects. Of course, there's much more to driving trains than just driving them, but it definitely kick-started me in to the right direction. What are your experiences on this subject? I'd love to read your stories!
I've been flight siming for about 35yrs and my wife bought me a flight in a cesna 172 for my birthday a couple of yrs ago, the instructor was so impressed he let me land back at the airfield (with his hands on the controls too) and asked if i had ever taken any lessons as i knew all the systems how to fly an approach, talk to ATC and configure the aircraft for landing, siming is amazing but experiencing the feel of how the aircraft moved under your own hand makes siming now so much more, almost made me book in for my PPL but i couldn't afford it LOL
