Pilots around the world use a flight simulator for training purposes. The simulator allows extensive practice of handling aircraft as well as the chance to work emergency procedures in as close to real conditions as possible.
What you may not know is that in some places the general public can book time on the sims for a fun experience. One such place that does this is British Airways Flight Training.
Flight Simulator Experience
British Airways have sold flight simulator time to the general public for years now. You can book one, two or three hour flights and these are conducted with a training pilot accompanying you.
The simulators have a full range of motion and quite realistic video systems. For all intents and purposes, you will feel like you are flying an actual aircraft as the accuracy is incredible.
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- The Simulator Hall at British Airways Flight Training
Clearly this would be a once in a lifetime thing for most people and it’s certainly priced to reflect that. A one hour flight costs £449 (€500, US$570), two hours is £849 (€940, US$1,075) and three is £1,199 (€1,329, US$1,520).
Visitors have a choice of flying the Boeing 747-400 or the Boeing 777-200 simulator. In the past, there was the option to fly other aircraft but I guess they have restricted it to those that are least busy for normal training.
Update: British Airways stopped selling these about two weeks after this article was published. Read on, as the below is still available.
How About Flying Concorde?
Brooklands Museum in Weybridge (around half an hour by train from London Waterloo station) is the home of the British Airways Concorde flight simulator. BA donated it to the museum after they withdrew Concorde from service.
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- The Brooklands Concorde simulator
Former Concorde pilots host your visit, which costs £199 for one hour with 15 minutes at the controls or £475 for two hours in the simulator with 30 minutes at the controls. The hydraulic motion system is gone, however all the rest is as it used to be.
Overall Thoughts
A flight simulator experience would be a hell of a lot of fun to do. People who have taken the plunge all report back on how amazing the day is. As someone who has seen the simulators at Alaska Airlines, even that was exciting and we didn’t get the fly them.
Have you ever done a flight simulator experience? Do any other airlines sell time on their simulators like BA do? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Images via British Airways.
Concorde Simulator via Brooklands Museum.
I’ve recently done an hour in the B737 full motion flight simulator in Burgess Hill, West Sussex. The company was http://www.fullmotionexperience.com and they were about £80 less than you’ve listed for an hour in the full motion. I’d tried fixed base in the past but it wasn’t a patch on this. I asked for heavy turbulence and by god I got it! Level D, i’m told this is what the professionals train in. Good to know they aren’t let loose with the aircraft straight away!
Oh awesome, I had no idea about these people. This is something I really should do as I’ve always wanted to give it a go. Sounds like some experience – thanks for the heads up! Really appreciate it!
About ten years ago I flew to U.K. to fly a full-motion A340 simulator at https://www.virtualaviation.co.uk. Was a great experience. Expensive but worth it. There is also https://www.virtual-aerospace.com in the U.K. with full motion sims. And I recently learned about https://flightdeck1.com out in the Los Angeles area (Anaheim). I’m going to try out their 737 sim on my next LA trip.
I bet that was an awesome experience with the A340! How cool would that have been! Thanks for those links, great to know a few more places that do this. Appreciate it! Enjoy the 737 sim when you’re out in LA next – can’t imagine that being a bad day out 🙂
Avenger Flight Group has locations in Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Mexico and some others that anyone can book but it’s not cheap and may not include flight instructors for base fee. http://www.afgsim.com this company is a training center for Spirit, Alligent and others. They also offer FA training in cabin mockups, raft and slides. They have a variety of static and full motions Sims. Most are A320 and B737s. It’s not cheap and they operate the Sims almost 24/7 so the times available vary a lot. They do have some cool videos on the website. They are a client… Read more »
Thanks for passing on all that information. I had a feeling other places around the world would also do something like this. Completely understand it not being cheap – even maintaining all the equipment would be pretty costly, let alone the cost of acquisition. Cheers for all that!
True on the cost. Each location AFG has includes about $20million+ in equipment (5 to 7 sims plus mock up cabins) not including the building, etc. It’s interesting how they build the sims. The cockpit has to come from the OEM aircraft company so that the controls, seats, etc. are exactly the same and then they build the simulator around that. They used to have hydraulic full motion sims but have since moved to all electric full motion equipment to avoid the hydraulic fluid hazards involved. What is also interesting is that there are only a few companies that make… Read more »
I wasn’t aware that it was possible to have all electric full motion equipment. I imagine it’s far safer for many reasons, but I’m curious about the cost differential. Yes, I always knew there were only a small number of manufacturers and that the costs were pretty high. It’s remarkable how they have been considered accurate enough to certify pilots for quite a long time now. They really are amazing things when you sit back and consider it all.