09/08/2026
Flight Simulator vs Real Flying: How Close Is It, Really?
Here's a fact that reframes the whole question: modern airline pilots can be certified on a new aircraft type entirely in a simulator — their first flight in the actual jet is often a revenue flight, with passengers aboard. Regulators sign off on this because full motion simulators have become that faithful.
So when guests at our Pasadena facility ask "yeah, but is it like really flying?" — the honest answer is layered, and more interesting than a yes or no. One thing to know up front: WeFly's cockpits are motion-powered experience simulators built on the same principles as those airline training machines — not FAA-certified training devices — and that honest framing shapes everything below. Having guided first-timers and working airline pilots alike through our motion-powered Boeing 737 MAX, here's the truthful breakdown.
What a Simulator Replicates Almost Perfectly
The Procedures — 1:1
Every flow, checklist, callout, and system in a proper simulator matches the aircraft. The autopilot logic, the hydraulics behavior, the way the flight director commands a climb — identical. This is why airlines train in sims: procedure is most of the job, and procedure transfers perfectly.
The Cockpit Workflow
Scan the PFD, manage the Mode Control Panel, brief the approach, configure flaps on schedule — the cognitive experience of operating a 737 is the same in our cockpit as at 36,000 feet. Guests who work through our step-by-step 737 flight are learning the real workflow, not a game version.
The Sight Picture and Feel of Landing
The flare — that judgment of height, sink rate, and timing in the last 30 feet — develops in a simulator and transfers to real wings. The 4K visual system reproduces the exact sight picture pilots use, and the motion platform supplies the deceleration and touchdown cues your body calibrates against.
The Fly-by-Wire Philosophy
In our Airbus A320 sim, the side-stick and flight-envelope logic behave the way Airbus designed them in the real aircraft — which is precisely why the Boeing vs Airbus feel debate gets settled in our building weekly, by hand, with both.
What a Simulator Can't Fully Replicate
Honesty section. Three things stay unique to the sky:
- Sustained G-forces. A motion platform delivers the onset of acceleration — the push, the tilt, the drop — then gently recenters below your perception threshold. A real jet in a steep turn keeps pressing on you. Your inner ear notices the first second either way; only the airplane sustains it.
- Consequence. No simulator recreates the knowledge that the ground is real. That said — ask any guest mid-approach whether their heart rate knows the difference. Palms sweat identically.
- The view is rendered. Gorgeous, geographically accurate, 4K — but rendered. Sunsets over the Pacific still hit different at altitude. (Ours are close, and infinitely rebookable.)
What Simulators Do Better Than Real Flying
This is the part the "vs" framing misses — some things only a simulator can offer:
- Any airport on Earth, on demand. LAX at sunset, an Alpine valley in Austria, Hong Kong at night — in one session. A real training flight sees one airport.
- Weather as a menu item. Want a 25-knot crosswind? Fog to minimums? You choose it, then practice it until it's boring — the importance of flight simulation in one sentence.
- Failures without fear. Engine-outs and go-arounds, repeatable on request. Airlines rehearse emergencies exclusively in sims for an obvious reason.
- The pause button. Confused? Freeze mid-approach and talk it through. The sky has no pause button.
- The price of admission. Real 737 time is effectively unbuyable for the public. Our captain's seat starts at $129 — no medical certificate, no license, no experience, from age 10.
What Real Pilots Say
Some of our regulars fly professionally and use sessions to stay sharp between trips — practicing hand-flown approaches airlines rarely allow in daily line flying. The typical verdict after a session: the procedures and sight picture are true to the jet, the motion cues are honest, and an hour of approaches here is the most valuable kind of repetition. When curious about a pilot's actual life, we collected it in Sky Without Borders.
One transparency note: WeFly sessions are for experience and proficiency-for-fun, not FAA-loggable training time. What transfers is the skill, the understanding, and — for aspiring aviators — certainty about the dream before spending flight-school money.
Frequently Asked Questions
How realistic is a full motion flight simulator, on a scale of 1–10? For procedures, controls, and workflow: a 10 — it's the airline training standard. For physical sensation: an honest 8 — onset motion cues without sustained G. For fun per dollar: off the scale. Here's the full technology breakdown.
Will simulator practice make me better at real flying? Procedure, instrument scan, and approach discipline — absolutely; that's exactly what airline recurrent training drills in sims. Stick-and-rudder feel still needs real wings.
Is it harder or easier than real flying? The flying is the same difficulty — the day is easier: no medicals, no weather cancellations, no checkride pressure. Just the good part.
Can I try the exact things airline pilots train on? Yes — ILS approaches, crosswind landings, night operations, even engine failures if you ask nicely. Instructors tailor every session.
Settle It in the Captain's Seat
The gap between simulator and sky is smaller than it's ever been — and the gap between reading about it and feeling it is enormous.
Written by Nik L., co-owner of WeFly — pilot (240+ hours on Cessna and Piper Seneca), aviation graduate, and guide of 3,000+ simulator sessions in the family company he built with his father, a 15,000-hour Boeing 737 captain. Read the WeFly story.
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