First steps in aviation

While posting on X-Plane topic, I remembered about my first days of flight simming. Why X-Plane made me think about that is because it was the first commercial aircraft simulator I ever used and induced my "addiction" to virtual flying.
As I couldn't find to buy the full version I used only the demo and was taken only short 10 minutes flights untill the joystick became disabled. Sometimes I was using the autopilot, trims and even differential throtle to land the airplane after the 10 minutes demo . I have to admit I was very curious what is outside the demo area (San francisco and LAX area). The happiest moment trough came some weeks later when I finally bought FS2002 and had the entire world under my keyboard.

If it is to talk about my passion for aviation I have to admit it's hard or even imposible to remember when it started. As small child I was building toy airplanes out of everything I could find (my favourite were float planes) and assmebled entire airfields. When I grew up a bit older (primary school), before I had the first contact with computers or internet, I filled up a room with airplane made out of paper which were modeled after real types. The biggest problem was that after 150 or so I didn't knew any other model to add to my colection and was looking all day on Discovery Channel, maybe maybe I can spot any new show where I can see an airplane that is not yet in my collection.
From Discovery I got crazy ideas (that I put in practice) of creating rockets and jet engines, but unfortunately my skills in calculations and design haven't been that good to make any fly. Fortunately for my parents I wasn't too bad either...I can be proud with the performance of not buring the house during flight testing although I burned the fuses one time trying to power an electical engine :)
Next came computers, first simulator I ever used was F22 Lightning, then X-Plane, FS2002 and FS2004. During FS2002 I joined Avsim, IVAO and got involved into scenery design.
I started studying Airspace Engeneering in college and I'm taking every opportunity I can find to fly for real. My first flight was in a 40 or 50 year old Antonov AN2, pretty cool experience.