Flight Simulators
You’re cruising in your F-14 Tomcat when you come upon a MIG-29. He breaks to lose you, but you counter with a barrel roll and lock him in. Most of us will never take the stick of an airplane, let alone engage with a bogey Top Gun style, but the latest flight simulators can make it seem like it.
The state-of-the-art home option is the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. The software, which you can “fly” on a PC or an Xbox, starts at $60. But serious aviation fans and commercial trainees spend hundreds or thousands on advanced throttles and yokes to better replicate cockpit controls. Included are 65 to 130 aircraft choices, from single-engine propeller planes to seaplanes to private jets, fighter jets, military transports and commercial airliners. You can “land” at 150 airports worldwide. Specialty tracks offer commercial training.
A big step up from that comes with the simulators that the airlines use and civilians can sometimes experience. United and Alaska auction off supervised sessions at training facilities to frequent-flier program members. A 2024 United package for two, with (real) roundtrip flights to Denver, facility tour and training on Boeing and Airbus simulators, recently went for 502,000 miles. As a bonus, you get to exit a real aircraft via emergency slide, something you’ll hopefully never experience otherwise.
The newest accessible option is the C.B. “Sully” Sullenberger flight simulator lounge in the Polaris Hotel in Colorado Springs. The aviation-themed luxury hotel has three simulators, including two F-16 Fighting Falcon cockpits, complete with pilot chairs that slide into the fuselage. The controls were salvaged from real planes. It’s so realistic some “pilots” get nauseous. Beyond take off, flying and landing, you can undertake air-to-ground military missions and stage dogfights with a buddy.
A Boeing 737-MAX cockpit lets you takeoff and land at your choice of airports: Denver to London Heathrow is popular. The many options of weather conditions, visual or instrument flying and hundreds of variables replicate just about any aviation experience. Thirty-minute sessions ($70 to $100) are supervised by former Air Force pilots or air traffic controllers. Unlike with real flying, it’s okay to bring a cocktail into the lounge with you.
