Not just the first VA, but one of the first few people in the VA. I was tasked with "designing" aircraft for use with our VA. When FS5 came out, you could modify the looks as well, so I'd get the flight dynamics as close as I could and another guy would build the model of how it looked. I forget what that package was called, now. But it was a lot of fun. I don't think any of us had an idea that VA's would turn into a Thing. We were just teens having fun :)
I wonder how many are in a similar boat. I grew up playing a ton of MSFS, Fly!, Flight Unlimited, Falcon 4, Combat Flight Sim, etc... Every major MSFS version was a huge deal. I remember having a high school event the evening MSFS2k came out and couldn't wait to get home to play it.
I was part of a few VAs as well, the community was so nice. One of my first software projects as an optimal flight route planner using publicly available data sets. It was one of the key stepping stones to learning to code in my early days.
I played so much FS4 and was in awe with FS5, having never played a textured 3D game on my PC before. Spent countless hours tuning it so it would be playable on my 486
In fact, in the early 90's, I was one of the first people in a Virtual Airline. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_airline_(hobby)
Not just the first VA, but one of the first few people in the VA. I was tasked with "designing" aircraft for use with our VA. When FS5 came out, you could modify the looks as well, so I'd get the flight dynamics as close as I could and another guy would build the model of how it looked. I forget what that package was called, now. But it was a lot of fun. I don't think any of us had an idea that VA's would turn into a Thing. We were just teens having fun :)