07/29/2026
The WeFly Story: A Father, a Son, and a Boeing 737
Every kid who has ever stretched their arms out and run across a yard making engine noises knows exactly what WeFly is. This page is about how that kid grew up — and what he built when the sky said no.
I'm Nik L., co-owner of WeFly. Here's our story, told straight.
The Captain
I grew up in the shadow of a Boeing 737 — or more precisely, in the shadow of the man who flew it. My father is an airline captain with more than 15,000 flight hours on the 737. For most people the aircraft on our homepage is an exotic machine; for our family it was the thing that put dinner on the table, the reason for missed birthdays, and the subject of a thousand kitchen-table stories about crosswinds, night approaches, and coffee at 36,000 feet.
Watching him, I didn't just want to fly. I assumed I would. Some kids pretend to be astronauts or race drivers for a summer — I pretended to be a pilot for an entire childhood, and then I went and made it official.
The Plan
I did everything the roadmap asks. A bachelor's degree in flight operations. A master's degree in the aviation industry. Then the flying itself: 220 hours in Cessnas learning the honest fundamentals, and 20 hours in the twin-engine Piper Seneca learning what happens when you add a second engine and real complexity.
The plan was simple: follow my father into an airline cockpit.
Then a medical diagnosis closed that door. Not slowly — the way a door actually closes. In aviation there is no arguing with the medical examiner, and there shouldn't be: those standards are part of why flying is the safest way to travel. But knowing that doesn't make the letter easier to read when your whole life pointed at one seat, on one flight deck, and the rules say it will never be yours.
The Second Approach
Pilots have a phrase for when a landing isn't working out: you go around. You don't quit flying — you climb, you breathe, you set up a better approach.
Mine looked like this: if I couldn't fly the line, I would build the cockpit — and open it to everyone else who ever stretched out their arms and made engine noises. Not a video game in a strip mall. A full-size, motion-powered Boeing 737 MAX — my father's aircraft — built to a standard that a 15,000-hour captain would walk into and take seriously.
We built it together, as a family. His decades on the real flight deck shaped everything: how the checklists read, how the motion feels in the flare, what a proper briefing sounds like, what we refuse to dumb down. My degrees and my flying shaped the rest — how to teach it, run it, and keep it safe. Today WeFly is a family-run company, and that 737 MAX in Pasadena is the only motion-powered one in the USA open to the public, flying alongside our motion-powered Airbus A320 and a Formula 1 racing simulator.
3,000 Sessions and Counting
Since opening in Pasadena we've guided more than 3,000 simulator sessions — ten-year-olds on their first "flight," couples on date nights, nervous flyers making peace with turbulence, retired captains visiting their old office, and more than a few aspiring pilots testing the dream before flight school (wise move, by the way).
Here's what I've learned watching every one of them: the kid with the outstretched arms never really goes away. They just need someone to hand them the controls.
That's the company we built. Not a consolation prize — a go-around that landed somewhere better: instead of one pilot's seat, we got to give away thousands.
Come Fly With Us
If you're curious what our cockpits feel like, start with what makes a full motion simulator real, or just come see for yourself — no experience needed, age 10 and up, every session guided by people who treat aviation the way our family always has: seriously, and with joy.
📍 1 W Mountain St, Unit 9, Pasadena, CA 91103 ✉️ info@wefly.aero 🎫 Book a flight at wefly.aero