An airport hotel in Japan has built a full-sized flight simulator into one of its guest rooms so aviation fans can try their hand at piloting a passenger plane the night before their departure. Nervous flyers may want to stay in a regular room.
The operator of the Haneda Excel Hotel Tokyu created the so-called “Superior Cockpit Room” to celebrate its 15th anniversary, Travel Daily reported.
Staying in the new room costs around 25,000 Japanese yen (about $230) per night, but firing up the controls of the Boeing 737-800 simulator will cost you extra, putting you at risk of blowing your travel budget even before you’ve reached your destination.
It means that when the room becomes available from July 18, you’ll have to fork out an additional 30,000 yen (about $280) for a 90-minute lesson with a qualified flight instructor. Still, aircraft enthusiasts flying out of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport will doubtless believe it’s a price worth paying.
Flights using the simulator offer a take-off from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport followed by a short flight and then the landing procedure.
Haneda isn’t the only airport in Japan that’s keen to entertain fans of flying. The much smaller Tajima Airport 270 miles west of Tokyo recently unveiled bathroom cubicles (pictured) featuring cockpit-style wallpaper based on the view from inside an ATR 42-600 turboprop passenger aircraft, local media reported.
Sit down to do your business and you’ll be able to see everything a pilot sees when flying one of the aircraft. The only difference will be the garments around your ankles.
Flight simulators
If all this talk of flight simulators has you itching to try out some take-offs and landings of your own, then be sure to check out Digital Trends’ pick of the best free simulators currently available. You might even feel compelled to build your own.
Should you get into any difficulties while bringing your plane back to terra firma, skip over to this fella’s YouTube video explaining how to land a passenger plane in an emergency. Hobbyist pilot Tim Morgan made the video in response to a question he read on Quora that asked, “What should I do if the pilot passes out and I (with no flight training) have to land the plane?”
