The same short list
Nobody tells a story about the third bowling night of the year.
Everyone Flies
Every guest takes the controls, whatever their experience
Professional Flight Crew
Your night is run by pilots who fly professionally
Steps From Dinner
Koreatown and Herald Square are a short walk away
We're moving to Midtown: here's what changes
Book any date and we will run it. If we move to the new studio before your event, we will contact you directly with the new location.
- Today: G1000 events bookable at our Midtown studio
- September 22, 2026: Midtown studio opens at 35 West 31st Street, Suite 901
- 2027: Cirrus simulators (delayed)
We are moving to a new studio this fall. If we relocate before your event, we will contact you directly and give you all the details of the new location.
Booking now
Book the G1000 session
Up to 6 people on the G1000 simulator, bookable right now for any date. The VR room and the larger configurations stay quote-only until they are online.
- 3 hours, everyone flies, briefing and debrief included
- One flat rate for the group, shown at checkout
- Led by an instructor who flies professionally
We are moving to a new studio this fall. If we relocate before your event, we will contact you directly and give you all the details of the new location.
Why Does Every Night Out Feel the Same?
The list is short and everyone has done all of it: a bar, bowling, an escape room, a comedy club. Then someone has to organize it for eight adults across three neighborhoods, and the night turns into logistics.
Booking for eight adults
Group reservations in Manhattan are their own small project.
The organizer carries it
One person quietly worries the whole night will fall flat.
Who Is Running the Night?
Not a host with a script. Working airline pilots run the session, brief your group, and sit in the right seat while each person flies. They are the reason a first-timer lands the airplane.
Julian Alarcon (ATP, CFII, MEI)
Boeing 777 Pilot, Major U.S. Airline
Founder of Aviator.NYC, Julian is an FAA Gold Seal Certified Flight Instructor with over 4,500 hours of instructional time. He has flown everything from gliders to charter jets to wide body airliners and earned all his instructor ratings while serving on active duty.
Peter Lynde (ATP, CFII, MEI)
Boeing 737 Captain, Major U.S. Airline
Peter has been with Aviator.NYC since day one and is a familiar face in many of our YouTube videos. A former instructor at CP Aviation, he taught primary, commercial, and instrument students, with a focus on advanced flight techniques.
Elijah Burgess (ATP, CFII)
ERJ Captain, Republic Airways
Elijah Burgess is an FAA Gold Seal Certified Flight Instructor and the founder of EBFlight.com. He holds a B.S. in Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and currently flies the ERJ-170/190 as a Captain for Republic Airways.
Which instructor runs your night depends on the date you book.
What If Nobody in the Group Has Flown Before?
That is the normal case, and it is the easy one. You bring the people; we run the rest. The instructor sets the scenario to the person in the seat, so a complete beginner takes off and lands on their first turn.
- Fly professionally for major airlines
- Majority
- Approved AATD simulator
- FAA
- Guests in the full studio
- 16
You Will Fly It Yourself
Hands on the controls from the first minute, with the instructor talking you through the takeoff and the landing.
A Job While You Wait
One person flies at a time. The rest take a crew job, watch the approach on the screens, or hang out in the lounge.
We Run the Room
Station setup, operators, rotation, and cleanup of the room are ours. You are a guest at your own event.
How Does the Night Work?
Pick your space and time
Tell us the headcount and the date. We match you to a simulator, the VR room, or the whole studio for two or three hours.
Everyone flies
Each person takes the controls with an instructor beside them. Whoever is not flying takes a crew job or watches from the lounge.
Walk to dinner
You finish in Koreatown, a few minutes from Herald Square. Book the table before you arrive and you will make it comfortably.
Does Anyone End Up Waiting Around?
No. Book more than one station and several aircraft are in the air at once; with the full studio running, four fly at the same time. Everyone else has a seat close to the action, and there is always a takeoff or a landing happening somewhere in the room.
The right seat is a real job
Whoever is next up sits beside the pilot as working crew.
- Works the radios
- Reads the checklist and calls the flows
- In a real airplane, that seat is half the crew
Watching is part of the night
The group gathers around each flight.
- Observer seats and spectator screens
- Best landings happen in front of an audience
- So do the funniest go-arounds
The lounge is home base
The group spreads across the room instead of standing in one crowd.
- Food and the long table
- Somewhere to sit between flights
- Close enough to still watch the flying
Can We Use This for a Birthday?
This is what most adult groups book it for. You get a private-feeling space with somewhere to sit, food you brought or we arranged, and an activity that is not a bowling lane or a movie theater.
The space is yours
A lounge, a long table, and the galley cart to put the cake on.
Food works here
Bring it or let us arrange it. Nobody has to eat standing up.
The activity is the gift
The person whose birthday it is flies first, and everyone films it.
A logbook makes it official. Time on the training simulators is real, loggable instruction. Order a pilot logbook for the guest of honor and the instructor signs the entry. The standard pilot logbook on Amazon
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Is There a Pilot in the Group?
Then the night has a second gear. Our instructors will load real approaches and procedures, and the pilot in the group finally gets to show the rest of them what the job actually looks like from the seat.
Fly something real
Real approaches, unfamiliar airspace, and the avionics you have been curious about.
Show your friends the job
They watch the approach on the screens while you talk them through it.
Logging the time
Instrument training time in the FAA-approved simulator can be logged with an instructor under the usual FAA rules. Recreational group flying cannot.
What Is Around the Studio?
The Midtown studio sits in Koreatown, a block off Herald Square. That is the point: you fly, you walk out, and dinner is right there. Nobody has to move the group across town at the worst hour of the evening.
Koreatown, on the block
The densest run of late-night restaurants in Manhattan, a short walk from the door.
Herald Square and Penn Station
Most subway lines and the commuter trains, so out-of-town friends can join easily. The full address is provided upon booking, by appointment only.
Plan the table first
Book dinner for shortly after your slot ends and the evening runs itself.
Can We Eat There Too?
Yes, and most groups do something light before dinner. Bring it in yourself, hire your own caterer, or ask us to arrange it for an added fee. The lounge and the galley cart are part of your space for the whole booking.
Bring Your Own
- Food, cake, and non-alcoholic drinks are all welcome
- The airline galley cart works as the serving station
- Hire your own catering team if you would rather not carry it in
- You handle your own setup and cleanup
We Arrange It
- Not our default: ask and we will quote it for your date
- Labor starts at $100, with the food and its preparation quoted on top
- Ordering, delivery timing, setup, and the cleanup are all on us
- Dietary needs and allergies covered on request
- About one week of lead time if you want us to arrange the food
- Bring your own decorations: we do not supply party decor
- We are a simulator training studio, so food shares the space with the simulators
We are a professional simulator training facility rather than a party venue. When you bring your own food, setup and cleanup are yours; when we arrange the catering, the cleanup is ours.
Images are AI-generated renderings of the planned Midtown studio.
What Will We Actually Be Flying?
Four stations at the Midtown studio, and your booking can take one or all of them. The training simulators are the real equipment our students learn on; the VR room is the one built purely for fun.
VR Room (2 VR flight simulators)
Both VR flight simulators with a dedicated operator. The F/A-18 Hornet, F-16 Fighting Falcon, A-10 Thunderbolt II, and P-51 Mustang lead the recreational launch lineup, alongside a Cessna 172 and a Cirrus SR20 in X-Plane 12.
- The launch lineup includes recreational F/A-18 Hornet, F-16 Fighting Falcon, A-10 Thunderbolt II, and P-51 Mustang missions, plus a Cessna 172 and Cirrus SR20 in X-Plane 12
- Both stations are fully immersive VR with the same headset and controls; mixed reality, where you can see the physical controls and your hands, is coming later and is not offered at opening
- Every airplane, including the Cessna 172 and Cirrus SR20, is flown with a force-feedback flightstick, combat throttle, and rudder pedals, with no yoke and no throttle quadrant
- Both stations add 2 degrees of freedom of motion, pitch and roll, after opening
- A session is 60 minutes total, with 45 minutes in the simulator
G1000 Flight Simulator
Flight training airplanes, a Cessna 172 and similar. This is the certified equipment people train in toward a license.
- Flies the trainers most pilots learn in: Cessna, Piper, and Beechcraft models
- Garmin G1000 avionics, the workhorse of modern flight training, in production since 2004 and still shipping today as the G1000 NXi
- FAA-approved training device on Precision Flight Controls hardware: with an instructor, the time is real, loggable training
Fixed base, so there is no motion and no queasiness.
Cirrus SR Series Simulator
Delayed to 2027The Cirrus SR20 and SR22, the airplanes famous for the whole-airframe parachute. Delayed to 2027. It will run at the new Midtown studio.
- Flies the Cirrus SR20, SR22, and SR22T, with the CAPS whole-airframe parachute built into the real airplane
- Touchscreen Garmin G3000 avionics, just like the real Cirrus, the same suite found in single-pilot jets
- Dual seating, side by side, matching the real airplane
Delayed to 2027. It will run at the new Midtown studio.
SF50 Vision Jet Simulator
Delayed to 2027The Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet, the only civilian jet built with a whole-airframe parachute. Delayed to 2027. It will run at the new Midtown studio.
- Flies the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet, the only civilian jet with a whole-airframe parachute
- Touchscreen Garmin G3000 avionics, just like the real Vision Jet
- Single seat, matching the real airplane, with its own FAA-approved training device
Single-seat Vision Jet trainer. Delayed to 2027. It will run at the new Midtown studio.
Images are AI-generated renderings of the planned Midtown studio.
How Big Is the Space?
The simulator stations have their own bays, separate from the lounge and event area where the group stands, eats and talks. The full studio hosts up to 16 guests once all stations are online.
The lounge runs along the street windows
Sectional seating, an eight-foot conference table, room to lay food out, and a mini refrigerator for anything that needs to stay cold.
Each station has its own bay
The VR room is its own glass room at the window end. The G1000 sits about thirty feet away against the opposite wall, and the Cirrus SR and SF50 Vision Jet simulators have their bays at the back.
The practical limits
One men's and one women's restroom, and an elevator that fits about four people comfortably. Those are the honest reasons we plan events to 16 guests.