How to Fly a Boeing 737, Step by Step

Flying a Boeing 737 comes down to a sequence any focused beginner can follow: set up the cockpit, taxi, take off at the right speed, climb, let the autopilot help, then fly a stabilized approach down to the runway. Airline pilots spend careers perfecting it — but the core sequence is learnable in a single session, and in Pasadena you can fly it yourself in the only motion-powered Boeing 737 MAX simulator in the USA open to the public.

This is the actual flow we teach at WeFly, from parking brake to touchdown. Read it now, fly it later — it's more fun when the throttles are real.

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Step 1: Learn the Cockpit's Big Five

The 737 cockpit looks like a thousand switches. Your first flight uses about five things:

• The yoke — pitch (nose up/down) and roll (banking). Fingertip pressure, not arm wrestling.
• The throttles — two levers, one for each engine. Forward = thrust = life.
• The Primary Flight Display (PFD) — your speed, altitude, and horizon in one glance.
• The flap lever — extends the wing for slow flight; you'll use it for takeoff and landing.
• The Mode Control Panel (MCP) — the autopilot's command center on the glareshield. More on this in Step 4.

Everything else — the overhead panel's fuel pumps, bleeds, and anti-ice — is real and working in our sim, and your instructor will happily go deep if you want the full airline-pilot workflow.

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Step 2: Before Takeoff

Real 737 crews fly by checklist, and so will you: flaps set (typically 5 for takeoff), trim set, autobrake armed, landing lights on. Then you taxi — steering with the tiller and keeping the centerline under you. It feels like driving a two-story building. Everyone giggles the first time. That's normal.

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Step 3: The Takeoff

Line up on the runway. Smoothly bring the throttles up — in the sim you'll feel the motion platform lean you back as thrust builds. Three speeds matter, and your instructor (acting as your first officer) calls them out:

1. 80 knots — a cross-check that both pilots' instruments agree
2. V1 — decision speed: after this, you're committed to flying
3. VR ("rotate") — ease the yoke back about 2–3 degrees per second to roughly 15 degrees nose-up

The runway falls away. Positive climb — gear up. Accelerate, retract the flaps on schedule, and the 737 settles into a climb like it was born for it. Because it was.

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Step 4: Cruise — and the Autopilot That Airline Pilots Actually Use

Here's what surprises most guests: airline flying is mostly managing, not wrestling. On the MCP you'll dial a heading and watch the jet bank exactly there; set an altitude and watch it capture perfectly; engage LNAV and VNAV and the aircraft follows the programmed route on its own while you monitor like a professional crew does.

Hand-flyers are equally welcome — plenty of guests keep the autopilot off the whole hour just for the feel of it. Curious how the Airbus philosophy differs? We compared them in Boeing vs Airbus, flown back to back.

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Step 5: The ILS Approach — Following the Invisible Staircase

An ILS (Instrument Landing System) is a pair of radio beams that guide you to the runway: the localizer keeps you on centerline, the glideslope walks you down at 3 degrees. On your PFD they appear as two moving diamonds — keep both centered and the runway appears out of the mist exactly where promised.

This is the skill that lands airliners in weather you wouldn't drive in, and practicing it is deeply satisfying — a big reason pilots and serious sim enthusiasts book our 60 and 120-minute sessions: enough time to fly the approach into LAX, go around, and fly it again better.

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Step 6: The Landing

Stabilized at 1,000 feet: gear down, flaps 30, speed about 140 knots. Aim at the touchdown zone. At 30 feet, shift your eyes down the runway and ease the nose up slightly — the flare — let the speed bleed, and the main wheels kiss (or arrive; both count). Speedbrakes deploy, you pull reverse thrust — the cockpit roars and the motion platform shoves you gently against the straps — brake to a walk, and breathe.

You just flew a Boeing 737 from gate to gate.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can a beginner really do all of this? Yes — with an instructor beside you, every step above is achievable on a first visit. Start with how a zero-experience flight works if that's you. The deeper systems (FMC programming, engine-out work) are there when you're ready.

How long does it take to learn? A 30-minute session covers taxi, takeoff, some flying, and a landing. A 60-minute session ($229) adds the autopilot and a real ILS approach. Two hours gets you multiple approaches at different airports — the fastest skill curve we offer.

Is the simulator accurate to the real aircraft? It's a full-size motion-powered replica — real controls, working overhead panel, 4K visuals, surround sound. Here's exactly what makes a full motion simulator feel real.

I fly Microsoft Flight Simulator at home. Is this worth it? Home simming teaches you the procedures; our cockpit gives you the feel — control forces, motion cues, seat-of-the-pants landing judgment no desktop setup can render. Home simmers are consistently our happiest guests.

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Ready to Fly the Real Thing (Minus the Altitude)?

Read the steps. Now feel them — at the only motion-powered Boeing 737 MAX simulator in the USA open to the public.

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.

📍 1 W Mountain St, Unit 9, Pasadena, CA 91103 💰 Use code MAYDAY for 30% off Monday–Wednesday 🎫 Book your 737 session at wefly.aero