Il2 for kids

[brickcommander]

I am building my daughter a computer for her 8th birthday with a 5600x, 32gb ram and a 4070 super (spare parts I had lying around). I have let her do a few free flights on my PC, and she enjoyed it. I bought her a copy of Boddenplatte that I will install for her. Maybe, if she gets into it, we can even do some coop missions.

 

Has anyone had any experience playing IL 2 with their kids? What age? How was the experience?

[Gutholz]

I guess free flights are mostly harmless but in general it is a combat simulation. Some aspects can be brutal, like burning cockpits, audio lines, ground crews getting bombed etc.

[Dash,Polder]

Don't invest heavily with daughters so fast, you'll be surprised how quickly they chuck flight sims and move on.  Speaking from experience, she'll quickly find other usage for that system.  

[GiftGruen]

8 years old girls and boys should rather not playing combat flight sims.

Maybe also: should rather not beeing bound to digital worlds so much.

Just my personal opinion.

[seagul]

Certains aspects peuvent être brutaux, comme les cockpits en feu, les lignes audio endommagées, les équipes au sol bombardées, etc.......

Je suis Français et je peux vous dire qu'à 20 h au journal télévisé certaines images de guerre  sont également brutales et ce n'est pas de la simulation !

Some aspects can be brutal, such as burning cockpits, damaged audio lines, ground crews under bombardment, etc....

I'm French, and I can tell you that some of the war images on the 8 PM news are also brutal, and it's not a simulation!

[Jaegermeister]

I played flight sims with my son when he was 1, sitting on my lap. He liked mashing the keys and watching the planes fly and crash. Once he did get a PC, he wasn't interested in flight sims. My daughter never had any interest in flying the flight sims either, just Zoo Tycoon and Toontown.

You never know though, she might get into it and wind up as a fighter pilot in the Space Force, leading her own squadron of attack drones and autonomous wingmen (uhhh...wingbots?)

[brickcommander]

8 hours ago, seagul said:

Certains aspects peuvent être brutaux, comme les cockpits en feu, les lignes audio endommagées, les équipes au sol bombardées, etc.......

Je suis Français et je peux vous dire qu'à 20 h au journal télévisé certaines images de guerre  sont également brutales et ce n'est pas de la simulation !

Some aspects can be brutal, such as burning cockpits, damaged audio lines, ground crews under bombardment, etc....

I'm French, and I can tell you that some of the war images on the 8 PM news are also brutal, and it's not a simulation!

Our experience of war isn't from the news but from the missiles exploding in our neighborhood.  I don't think flying a P-51 over germany in a simulated environment is more brutal than that. 

 

8 hours ago, GiftGruen said:

8 years old girls and boys should rather not playing combat flight sims.

Maybe also: should rather not beeing bound to digital worlds so much.

Just my personal opinion.

I agree about the digital worlds, my kids don't have phones or tablets. But I was flying flight sims at her age and having a ball (and learned a lot!). I started with red baron when I was 6 and then when I was 9 I got into the Janes games. I also think learning generally how to use a PC (she has never used one except to fly a couple missions on my rig) is an important life skill- the kind of thing that will allow her to have a chance to get into an elite intelligence unit and later a good career. Or, if she actually does get into flying, maybe a position in the air force.

 

I am building her the PC mainly because I have the parts lying around (5600x, power supply and ram were removed in earlier upgrades of my rig, the 4070 super was also just removed from my rig this week as I upgraded to a 5070ti). While I plan to preinstall her great battles, I am also putting on kerbal space program  and a few other fairly educational titles. And we will see what kind of games she actually plays- as far as IL2, buying her boddenplatte on sale for 15 bucks is not a big expense, worst case she doesn't really play it.

9 hours ago, Dash,Polder said:

Don't invest heavily with daughters so fast, you'll be surprised how quickly they chuck flight sims and move on.  Speaking from experience, she'll quickly find other usage for that system.  

I mainly want her to learn to us a PC and IL2 is among the titles she can try. If she lives it, great, if not, no big deal. 

 

9 hours ago, Gutholz said:

I guess free flights are mostly harmless but in general it is a combat simulation. Some aspects can be brutal, like burning cockpits, audio lines, ground crews getting bombed etc.

Absolutely some aspects can be brutal, but there is no PC game that is as brutal as what she actually has seen with her own eyes over the past 3 years. In just the past 2 months, no fewer than 3 ballistic missiles have impacted within 150 meters of our house...

[LukeFF]

My son (now 7) has been interested in flying the FC planes around in free flight mode for a few years now. He enjoys it and I can tell he's actually building up a talent for it. No harm in it at all. 

[brickcommander]

40 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

My son (now 7) has been interested in flying the FC planes around in free flight mode for a few years now. He enjoys it and I can tell he's actually building up a talent for it. No harm in it at all. 

Do you use easier settings to get him started? Auto engine management for example?

[GiftGruen]

Well, @brickcommander - first at all, I want to say that my intention was not to offend you or something like this - so you do not need to defend yourselves. Dont read my comment as a personal attack.

I also know that I am in a 'luxury' position, living in germany, having peace. This is not the case in other regions of this world.

For good reasons, forum rules forbid political debates. This is a forum where european, russian, ucrainian, american and people from other regions talk about a flight sim hobby - and this is a good thing. So it's somewhat difficult to give a good answer without touching politics.

However ...

In essence, IL2 is a computer game about shooting, destroying, killing. While the real world indeed is plagued by all this in reality ( and maybe your RL unfortunately more than my RL ) - I simply ask myself if at least beeing a child at home with mum and dad should not be free of all this.

Yes. World will show violence to our children and we cannot protect them from this, they will see violence sooner or later, growing up, getting adults. But it shouldnt be Dad or Mum who teach them that 'shooting, destroying, killing' is a funny and normal thing.  Aged 8 - a child takes this as a truth, a child is not able to distinct fantasy from reality like adults are.

This is just my opinion. I apologize if you feel attacked - but clearly don't share your opinion on this.

 

 

 

[LukeFF]

4 hours ago, brickcommander said:

Do you use easier settings to get him started? Auto engine management for example?

Yes, auto engine management. Otherwise, if he points the plane at the ground and he crashes, that's on him. 😄 

[AndreiTomescu]

You guys realise that speaking about kids can get hotter than an August day. Politics are nothing compared to a personal thing, even intimate one  like kids and their raising ways.

This being said, all goes down to personal views.

I have 2 boys: 13&15 by now.

The digital world is more their realm than mine/ours (adults) but in a shallow way, I think.

I'm a harcore gamer since my ZX Spectrum, 35 plus yrs ago. How could they not be attracted to gaming?

The older one likes GTA/Mafia and sports related games mostly. So, that's what he plays. With moderation, as his own choice.

The younger one, he's always been interested in strategy games. Still plays CIV3 from time to time. Also some of my favourite titles he tried. If he liked them (KCD1&2, Metro, Sniper Elite,...) he finished them way ahead of me. Fantasy bound titles, he dislikes. Show him a dragon and he'll hit you with a wagon. He tried some ROF back in the days, but wasn't much interested. So that's it. Have to put boundaries, or he'll play forever, just like me. (Yes, some sick pride here.....)

I truly believe they should go with their own choices. Only games I discourage are phone games, I find them a waste of time and eyes.

I taught them both as much history as I could, and always explained to them about a game, as not to be absorbed mindlessly into it.

Although it's quite hard to explain what i don't even understand sometimes, like the constant and mindless violence that surrounds humankind from its dawn. Well, maybe the hole life is just a real time game. And violence defines us as a race. DNA like. Maybe not, but I miss the factual proof that it's not.

So kids gaming? It's natural, like we played with sticks. But it's our duty to guide them a bit in this virtual world, like it's our duty to do the same guidance in the real one. Thou they tend to merge, now more than yesterday.

[Catch]

5 hours ago, LukeFF said:

My son (now 7) has been interested in flying the FC planes around in free flight mode for a few years now. He enjoys it and I can tell he's actually building up a talent for it. No harm in it at all. 

FC eh. Well done Luke. You have raised a lad with class and good taste. 🙂 He will grow into a gentleman. “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” Unfortunately it didn't work with my son. He prefers WWII. I failed as a father. 🙁

[Koziolek]

On 5/6/2026 at 10:48 PM, GiftGruen said:

8 years old girls and boys should rather not playing combat flight sims.

 

You are absolutely right. They should go straight to FPS

[Xtremist]

I have a 9 year old daughter, she likes to fly in Il2 and Dcs, but not combat, only flying around. She tried dogfighting, but didn't like it, so now it is aerobatics, sightseeing and flying under bridges... 

We started 2 years ago with Po2 and Yak52, now she is familiar with all the flyable aircrafts. They can learn anything in this age if interested. 

[dgiatr]

I have two sons 18 and 16 years old. I am a hard-core il2 gamer with vr headset, motion platform, ffb, diy goodies on it, e.t.c.... None of them never tried even once to fly using my rig. Instead they prefer to play games with their androids!!!Do you think it's normal....? 

Edited May 8 by dgiatr

[brickcommander]

1 hour ago, dgiatr said:

I have two sons 18 and 16 years old. I am a hard-core il2 gamer with vr headset, motion platform, ffb, diy goodies on it, e.t.c.... None of them never tried even once to fly using my rig. Instead they prefer to play games with their androids!!!Do you think it's normal....? 

That's a shame... if I had had a VR flight sim at home when I was a preteen or teen I would have been in heaven!

 

I don't allow my kids to play phone games or tablet (except in the bomb shelter or on airplanes), but I think PC games are different.

 

I plan to install her a few different games and see what she likes, but I do think she will enjoy flying around. As far as I am concerned, combat in flight sims or strategy games is not the same as a shooter game- yes there is violence, but the games are also educational, with historical cibtent and critical thinking- not to mention physics and aerodynamics. 

 

 

[Avimimus]

Remembering when I was young:

I read books about WWII aviation history, saw the old Battle of Britain movie from 1967... but it was really the reading which generated a lot of interest - that and the Go-229 on the cover of the SWOTL box found at a yard sale.

That manual was very good because it had quotes from aviators at the top of the page, had performance charts, bits of history etc. It gave a well rounded enough introduction to the war and the technology - both at a very high level, and also with more personal anecdotes.

I also suspect that I was a lot more patient when I was a kid compared to people now who have access to the constant stimulation of social media, youtube, and tiktok...

[AndreiTomescu]

3 hours ago, dgiatr said:

Do you think it's normal....? 

don't like it either. but it's to be expected, since most of their friends to this. it's a risk and a gamble for a kid to be diiferent and play the "good stuff". risk of being excluded from talks between them, sharing same interests.....

2 hours ago, brickcommander said:

but I think PC games are different

yes, yes INDEED ! first of all, playing on a small screen ruins your eyes. badly. Secondly, most phone/tablet games are mindless time-waisting tools. Not all, but....most.

Learning to master an aircraft with joystick and stuff, that's awesome. and usefull. a bit of combat is anyhow less impacting comparing to blowing an enemy's head with a shotgun, or better a .50 rifle. My 13 yrs one was very excited to see all the organs he learned about al biology so well depicted in those hit cutscenes from Sniper Elite....

However, VR for under 12 is really not reccomended. The brain, especially the frontal cortex, is not fully developed. there are good studies that demonstrate the vicious effect that VR does to a young kid, regarding: depht and spatial perception, balance, eyesight.

Edited May 8 by AndreiTomescu

[Aapje]

5 hours ago, Xtremist said:

I have a 9 year old daughter, she likes to fly in Il2 and Dcs, but not combat, only flying around. She tried dogfighting, but didn't like it, so now it is aerobatics, sightseeing and flying under bridges... 

MSFS is great for just flying around as well, especially since it already includes sight-seeing trips that one can do, specifically chosen for having pretty locations and nice sights. You can also use it to fly in places where you've been in real life (or are going to go), providing a nice intersection between the game and real life.

[Dash,Polder]

Yes, VR isn't a good idea at all with children, how do most adults even know if their young one needs vision correction at that point in life, a child generally doesn't know if their vision has issues at that age and can't generally tell you, they have no real reference point.  You can end up doing damage with prolonged use and they'll never say a word because the urge to play exceeds the potential damages and they don't want to disappoint you so won't say anything.  Always a good idea to get them an exam before prolonged exposure even if its just sitting in front of a screen.

I fly regular with a nephew I introduced to the sport over twenty some years ago pre-IL-2, before the VR or even trackIR days with EAW as the sim of choice.  There were many years of gap but he eventually came back and we fly regular with what's left of my old squad.  His two sons are just starting, happily donated an old spare stick and rudder pedals for their cause.  Looking forward to those boys joining a raid some day soon over the Korean peninsula or maybe Pacific.   

I see sims as an excellent tool to teach patients and discipline, and simultaneously being one of the greatest stress releases ever invented.  You patiently devise, refine, and combine as a team using your own developed tactics and in the end if you succeed get to pulverize someone or something.😁

[Newbiefodder]

I think it will depend very heavily on the temperament of the child. A combat flight sim has a high learning curve, and getting good at it usually requires a bit of learning the actual physics of flight. If you kid is very inquisitive and has a scientifically curious mind, they may really enjoy it, and it can actually help them to learn a lot of physics in the process. Not all kids will want to dig into something that will take time and focus to learn though. It can't hurt to try!

[GenMarkof007]

S! All,

I think kids could benefit from starting with civilian flying sims, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, to learn the basics of aviation and discover whether they enjoy flying. It’s also a good way to understand how aircraft work in a non-combat environment.

Personally, I would avoid introducing war games until they are mature enough to clearly understand the difference between a simulation game and real war. Parents can also help explain that distinction early on. I believe this helps separate real-life events from in-game experiences.

If they are interested later on, I would probably start them with IL-2 Flying Circus, since WW1 aircraft are generally easier and more enjoyable to fly for beginners.

Of course, there are people far more knowledgeable about children and video games than I am, but I feel kids already deal with enough stress from daily life and school. In my opinion, war games—and even social media apps—are better introduced at an older age, perhaps around 16 years old.

Cheers,
GenMarkof007

P.S.: I started playing WW1 and WW2 games around the age of 14–16, and I think it helped me better understand the realities of war. It also sparked my interest in history through war simulations.

[gecko]

I first started flying sims at about 7 or 8 - Aces over Europe and Red Baron. My dad was a former fighter pilot (F-4s) and it gave me a chance to understand a slice of his world and who he was. I learned about flying and history and geography and I loved it. Dogfighting was fun. It was also kept in the context that while there can be right reasons to fight wars, and while bravery is praiseworthy and victory is exhilarating, every war, and every death in every war, remains a tragedy. Somehow my parents held that tension really well and passed it down to me, in part through combat flight sims.

I grew up and became a professional pilot. In part through upbringing for sure, but also because I always had flight sims to keep the enthusiasm active. And yes, my kids all get to fly sims, and some of them are enjoying figuring out air combat. And I try to pass down the same lessons I was given.

[Avimimus]

On 5/8/2026 at 10:18 PM, GenMarkof007 said:

If they are interested later on, I would probably start them with IL-2 Flying Circus, since WW1 aircraft are generally easier and more enjoyable to fly for beginners.

Are they though? I'm not against starting at the beginning 🙂 But the lack of spin recoverability in many WWI aircraft, the vulnerability to crosswinds, the eccentric and peculiar handling characteristics that vary between types...