Inside the flight deck.

Most "flight simulators" you can pay to fly are stripped-down boxes: a yoke, a screen, an enthusiastic operator. Ours is a Boeing 737-800NG cockpit. Built at full 1:1 scale, fitted out with commercial-grade avionics, and driven by the same ProSim B738 software found in professional training environments, used here for enthusiast and experience flights.

Every switch on the overhead panel functions. The MCP, the FMC, the radio stack, the pedestal: all live. The control yokes are weighted, with resistance that shifts as you fly: heavier and more deliberate at low speed, smoother as the aircraft builds speed. The seats are replica 737 flight-deck seats from FlyByCockpit. The throttle quadrant moves with the autothrottle the way it does in the aircraft.

This is the level of fidelity that takes years of obsession to build. Sit down in the left seat and the muscle memory of a real 737 pilot kicks in immediately. Sit down with no experience at all, and you'll be flying within fifteen minutes.

A session is more than the flying. You'll be met on arrival and taken up to the Premium Lounge for a personalised 15-minute briefing covering your package, the cockpit layout and the route you've chosen. Then into the left seat. Afterwards, a 15-minute debrief and a small gift to take home. Bring a camera — we'll lend you a pilot jacket and hat — and note there are two jumpseats behind the pilot seats, so up to two guests can watch from inside the cockpit.

Two honest notes. This is a fixed-base flight simulator: there is no full-motion platform. What there is instead is the 220° visual wrap and bass shakers under both pilot seats that fire in sync with engine spool-up, gear and flap movement — most guests forget they aren't moving. And you need no experience whatsoever. An active Boeing 737-800NG Captain and two senior instructors run the sessions, and we fly pilots from nine years old upwards, accompanied by an adult.

The simulator room itself is purpose-built: climate controlled for summer and winter, fully ventilated, with a private bathroom and smoke detection monitored via ADT.