A Newcastle husband-and-wife pilot team is giving frustrated globetrotters the chance to fly their own aircraft anywhere in the world after expanding their flight simulator business.
Customers can fly anywhere in the world, with no passport, travel restrictions or quarantine guaranteed - and the only catch is that the Boeing 737 cockpit will never actually leave the ground.
Based close to Newcastle International Airport, Flight Sim Centre is run by qualified pilots Neil and Amanda McCarthy and, as Europe’s largest flight simulation centre, it is regularly used to train professional pilots while allowing the public to test the equipment themselves.
With the downturn in global travel 2020, the centre is hoping the unique experience will help ease the pain for frustrated voyagers.
Mr McCarthy said: “2020 has been a year unlike anything I have ever experienced in my entire flying career.
“There’s been a lot of uncertainty about the airline industry but the genie’s out of the bottle. Too many people have got used to the unbeatable freedom that air travel brings. We’ve just got to ride out the Covid storm and that’s where places like the Flight Sim Centre can help people keep their dreams alive.”
While unable to accept users during lockdowns, the pair took advantage of the down time by having the centre expanded and re-furbished to include a new Boeing 737-800 cockpit and complete working Bell 206 Jet Ranger Helicopter.
Mr McCarthy said: “I can tell you from the experience of being a pilot myself, that sitting in our Boeing-737 cockpit is the absolute nearest thing you can get to the real thing. You easily forget it’s a simulator. It’s amazing.
“It has full realistic controls, 230-degree wraparound cinema quality screen, automated throttles, stick shaker stall warnings, tactile transducers, a spacious six-person passenger cabin, and the ability to simulate flights to 52,000 airports across the world. All with no travel restrictions or Covis quarantine, guaranteed.”
The Flight Sim Centre has halved the cost of its flight simulations up to Christmas, and made vouchers valid for up to two years, in case of further unplanned Covid restrictions.
It also offers fear of flying courses for those anxious about travelling in an aircraft and future pilots course where the trainee learns the fundamental basics of the Private Pilot’s Licence.
Mrs McCarthy has supported her husband’s dreams ever since he built his own Spitfire and spontaneously bought a vintage British WWII DeHavilland Vampire at auction - before restoring it and displaying it on the drive of their house in Seaton Burn, North Tyneside.
She said adapting the business to Covid-19 is the latest evolution of their aviation adventure, which they share with sons Nathan, eight, and Ryan,10, who has has already had experience of flying a real aircraft.
She said: “We’re both aviation crazy, which is why the Flight Sim Centre is now the leading one of its kind in Europe. It fulfils all the professional training needs of pilots but it’s also just tremendous fun. I think that’s what we bring to it.
“In lockdown, we replaced and upgraded every simulator and increased our facilities to nine different experiences. We are particularly pleased in this, the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain year to be able to offer a dog fight in a single-seater Spitfire or Messerschmitt Bf 109.
“We have the ultimate in big boys toys and with Christmas around the corner you may even see Santa up in the clouds.”
