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Getting my wings! How a first-class flight simulator offered me a taste of the high life

Budding pilot Joy Sable touches down at Ben Gurion Airport — without setting foot out of London Luton

March 22, 2024 12:14
PL302811
Prepare for takeoff: Joy and her flight simulator instructor Paul Lang

ByJoy Sable, Joy Sable

3 min read

I am sitting in the captain’s seat in the cockpit of a Boeing 737-800. It is hurtling down the runway at Ben Gurion airport in Israel and as soon as it reaches the necessary speed for take-off, I pull back gently on the control stick in front of me and the plane rises majestically into the air. To my left is the blue of the Mediterranean Sea, to my right the beautiful Israeli landscape. Who knew flying could be enjoyable?

Only, I’m not flying. I’m in a very realistic flight simulator at London Luton Airport. Next to me, in the co-pilot’s seat, is Paul Lang, who, together with Howard Atkins, runs Voyager Flight Simulation, a high-spec jetliner and helicopter flight simulator centre. He guides me through what to do, which buttons to press and which switches to flick. In the distance, I can see the Dead Sea and as I bank the plane to the right, Jerusalem looms ahead. At an impossibly low altitude that would never be permitted in reality, I approach the Dome of the Rock and the Kotel.

Lang is a familiar face on the simcha circuit. Having been a photographer for nearly four decades, he can often be seen at weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs, snapping away to capture special memories. So why then is he sitting next to me, his white shirt decorated with captain’s epaulettes?

Running Voyager Flight Simulation is the culmination of a childhood dream. Lang’s father had completed his National Service in the RAF and though he always worked in aviation, he never became a pilot. Instead, he took his son to the Farnborough Air Show and the RAF Museum, instilling a love of planes.