Flight simulator experiences
| SPECIAL OFFER from Into the Blue - 15% off!! There's a highly lovely 15% off experiences up to £250.00 at Into the Blue with the code ITB15FORME. There's no minimum spend, but some products are excluded from this offer. Fly off to Into the Blue here - their flight simulator experiences are here. |
Although this is a gift membership site, membership can be about getting out and seeing new places or doing something new, as much as receiving information about the work a charity is doing and how to get involved, or discovering more about your own particular interest.
If your loved one fancies a flying experience but you’re thinking, hmm, not really eco-friendly, you could look at giving them a flight simulator instead to get them into a cockpit. And they are a greener flying experience than actually going up in the air, so more eco-friendly – aircraft use up fuel and expel more emissions.
A flight simulator experience gives them the chance to see what it’s like to be a pilot, and to get onto the flight deck and have a go at "flying" the plane although you are on the ground in the simulator. They are a sort of bridge between being on the ground and actually being in the sky. And Into the Blue has lots of flight simulator experiences to choose from!
 There's a Full Motion F-18 Maverick Simulator in Cambridgeshire from £79.00 |  There's a Flight Simulator 737 experience at Brighton City Airport, Shoreham from £99.00 |
Into the Blue are well placed to offer experiences like this. The Founder and Managing Director of Into the Blue, Jim Maitland, went to Biggin Hill as a boy with his father, Jock. He'd opened Biggin Hill as a civilian Airfield back in 1958, and Jim would spend many hours amongst the semi derelict relics from wartime days. Later, Jim the son helped Jack, the father. run the Biggin Hill Air Fair. Jim quickly realised that lots of people going to the shows to spectate would love to "have a go" themselves and Into the Blue was born! Jim worked closely with their aviation contacts and so you and I now do indeed have the chance to "have a go"! So here's a chance to "have a go" at a flight simulator!
No flying experience needed!
You don’t need any flying experience or knowledge to do a flight simulator experience, although of course conditions can be made more challenging. You can experience what it’s like to be a pilot without knowing anything about actual aviation. At Coventry Airport, you can even try the Sully Experience for £199, emulating Captain Sully who landed a Boeing full of people on the Hudson River , or you can have a go at the Alpine Challenge for £79.00 (Gloucestershire) – can you land at Innsbruck Airport with its very tricky approach, huge gusts and turbulence – Into the Blue say that some pilots say it’s more like an emergency descent than a controlled landing. (Note to self: I won’t be flying there, then.)
 There's a Concorde flight simulator, Brunswick, Newcastle upon Tyne from £149.00 |  Or how about the Ultimate Spitfire Simulator in Sussex from £275.00 |
 Try your hand at a 737 flight simulator at Gloucester Airport from £59.00 (it was on offer at the time of writing) |  There's a Fighter Pilot Experience in Cheshire - you even get to wear a genuine RAF fighter pilot flight suit! from £39.00 |
There are even Spitfire Simulator experiences so that you get the chance to find out what it’s like to fly the world famous Spitfire. You can even have a dogfight in the air, chasing, shooting at and trying to evade another plane. Go to the modern, and there’s a Concorde Flight Simulator (Brunswick, Newcastle-upon-Tyne). There are flight simulator experiences at a number of venues around the UK, and their offerings (which differ at each venue) range from a military jet to a helicopter.
A flight simulator experience can put giving someone the dream of flying an experience at a lower cost which may suit your budget better. For instance, having a Spitfire Experience when you fly a genuine 1940's spitfire from Kemble airfield is £2,975 for 30 minutes (20 minutes are airborne, that’s at Cotswold Airport, Gloucestershire) or you can fly alongside a Spitfire (such as in Kent for £619.00). Having a Spitfire Simulator Experience can start at about £100.00 (that’s near Manchester).
The other thing about a flight simulator experience is that you can "have a go" at flying something like a 737, 747 or an Airbus 320. You may be able to have a flying experience in a Tiger Moth or a Cessna, but can't do this with a passenger jet; however a simulator experience would give you the chance to see what it's like and have an inkling as to what the pilots are doing in the cockpit the next time you're off on a trip in an aircraft such as the Airbus 320.
If you’re not sure what sort of aircraft your loved one would like to have a go in, you could take a look at the Nationwide flight simulator voucher available for £99.00 from Into the Blue. The voucher has a number of different experiences to choose from around the country, with different aircraft to have a go in. You may prefer the Military Aircraft Simulator Experience in Suffolk. From £99.00, that gives you the choice of three military aircraft simulators.
 Into the Blue have a Nationwide Flight Simulator Voucher Choose where you go and what to fly, for £99.00 |  There's a Military Aircraft Simulator Experience in Norfolk - pick the Lynx, F35 or Spitfire sim from £99.00 |
If you’ve got a loved one who loves both history and flying, an older type of aircraft may be just the thing – perhaps a Messerschmitt, a Lancaster Bomber, a Vulcan Bomber, or a Spitfire - this could be an amazing way to give them a sense of what it was like to fly in one of these older planes. Or, you could go for the moder modern F16 fighter jets, an F4 Phantom, or a VR Fighter Jet Simulator. Perhaps you’d prefer something like a 737, Concorde, or an Airbus 320, a helicopter or a Cessna.
 There's a Spitfire vs Messerschmitt Combat for Two in Bedfordshire from £85.00 |  For lovers of history, how about a Lancaster Bomber Flight Simulator, in Sussex? From £119.00 |
The experience won’t give you the qualifications you need to actually fly a plane.
You can have a go at switching the seat belt sign on – unless you’re in a civil or military aircraft. Bing bong! (I’ve always wanted to make that “Bing bong” sound or the "Ping".)
You’re in control, you can even choose where you fly and what conditions the flight will have … and yet you never actually leave terra firma. Many simulators (not all) have a database of over 24,000 different airports and airfields, and you usually get the chance to work out what you’ll do and where you’ll fly with your instructor during your pre-flight briefing. You can usually choose the weather – a calm, sunny day or perhaps lots of fog, or horrendous turbulence – what about a storm with lightening? Your instructor will take you through take-off and landing and so forth.
Into the Blue which started at Biggin Hill, has a large listing of flight simulator experiences, so you could start by taking a look at those. Location and your budget will no doubt need to be considered – but there’s lots of choice. Fasten your seat belt and fly off to take a look here!