I got a go in a MD83 simulator as a present. Then started spending too much time playing FS2000. Then was surfing the internet and found sites of various people (mostly in the US) who had built homemade full cockpit simulators (one guy even bought the front end of an airliner) and found myself wondering (a little scathingly I admit - sorry) why they didn't just fly for real. The irony hit as I started FS2000 that evening so I started looking at PPL courses. 4 weeks in the States and the bug had bitten.