A 60-minute session in our Redbird MCX full-motion simulator is $189, never leaves the building, and is the step we recommend first to anyone whose fear of flying is severe enough that boarding an aircraft is not currently realistic. It gives you the motion, the instruments, the radio work and the sequence of a real flight in a machine you can pause mid-maneuver and walk away from at any moment.
This page is about using the simulator specifically as a tool for fear of flying, which is a different job from the one it usually does. If you want the wider picture of the fear itself, start with fear of flying: what it is and how pilots would fix it. If you want the technical description of the machine, its FAA approval and how its hours count toward a certificate, that is on our full-motion flight simulator page.
Why The Simulator Is Usually Step One
Graded exposure only works if you complete the step. A rung you abandon halfway teaches your brain that escape is what saved you, which is worse than not attempting it. So the first rung has to be one you will finish, and for a frightened person the simulator has four properties that no aircraft can match.
You can stop it. Not eventually, not after a circuit, not once the instructor finds somewhere to land. Now. The session freezes where it is, the door opens, and you are standing in a room at Van Nuys. Knowing that is true is usually what makes staying possible, and it is the single biggest reason the simulator works as a starting point.
Nothing depends on the weather. A flight you have spent three weeks working up to, canceled for a low ceiling, is a genuine setback. The simulator flies on schedule regardless, which means the thing you decided to do actually happens on the day you decided to do it.
There is no weight limit. Our aircraft have per-seat and combined weight limits for perfectly ordinary weight-and-balance reasons. The simulator has none, and for people who have quietly ruled out flying for that reason, this is often the first door that opens.
You can repeat the frightening bit. In an aircraft, takeoff happens once. In the simulator you can fly the same takeoff five times in an hour until it stops producing much of anything, which is precisely how exposure is supposed to work and is impossible to arrange in the real thing.
What The Redbird MCX Actually Reproduces
The MCX is an FAA-approved advanced aviation training device on a full-motion platform. It is not a toy with a joystick and it is not a home flight-sim rig with three monitors. It is a fully enclosed cockpit that moves, with real controls, real avionics behavior and an instructor station beside it. Here is what that means for someone who is frightened.
| Element of a flight | In the Redbird MCX |
|---|---|
| Pitch, roll and heave motion | Reproduced. The platform moves in response to your control inputs and to the simulated air, which is what produces the physical sensations doing most of the frightening. |
| Turbulence | Reproduced, and adjustable. Your instructor can dial it from nothing to unpleasant and then back down, which no airline will do on request. |
| Instrument panel and avionics | Reproduced. You can watch airspeed, altitude and attitude behave exactly as they do in flight, which converts sensations into readable numbers. |
| Radio work and air traffic control | Reproduced. Hearing the whole conversation with the sequence explained is one of the more reassuring hours available. |
| The sequence of a flight | Reproduced end to end: start, taxi, takeoff, climb, cruise, descent, approach, landing, including a go-around if you want to see one. |
| Weather, low cloud, night | Reproduced, and selectable. You can fly into cloud deliberately and watch the instruments keep working. |
| Sustained g and the true sensation of climbing | Not reproduced. No motion platform on earth can sustain acceleration; it uses short movements and tilt to cue your inner ear. |
| Real height and real consequence | Not reproduced, and this is the honest limitation. Part of you always knows the floor is ten feet below. |
| An actual airliner cabin | Not reproduced. The MCX is a light aircraft cockpit, not a jet cabin with 180 strangers in it. |
Why The Limitations Do Not Matter Much At This Stage
People sometimes ask whether the simulator is worth doing given that last group of rows. It is, for the same reason a climbing wall is worth doing before a mountain. The point of the first rung is not to be identical to the last rung. It is to be close enough to produce real anxiety, and controllable enough that you sit with that anxiety long enough for it to fall. The MCX does both. The knowledge that you are safe is not a defect here; it is what lets you stay in the seat while your body learns something.
What An Hour Looks Like For A Nervous Flyer
A standard simulator session is run as a training exercise. Yours will not be. Tell the office when you book that you are a nervous flyer and the hour is structured completely differently.
It starts outside the simulator, with the instructor explaining the machine, the motion, the freeze control and how to get out. Then you sit in it with nothing running, for as long as you want, touching the controls and asking questions. Nothing moves until you say it can.
From there the usual sequence is a normal, boring, entirely uneventful flight in perfect weather: start, taxi, takeoff, a gentle climb, a circuit of the valley, an approach and a landing, all narrated. Most nervous flyers want to do that at least twice, because the second time removes the novelty and lets you notice how little actually happened.
After that, the hour is yours to aim at whatever your fear is. People commonly ask for turbulence, dialed up gradually while the instructor points out that the altimeter is barely moving. Or a go-around, so that the maneuver that terrifies them from the cabin becomes something they have seen flown. Or an engine failure at altitude, to watch the aircraft turn into a glider rather than a falling object. Or cloud, to see the instruments keep working when the windows go white. Every one of those is a specific fear, addressed directly, with a freeze button in reach.
What The Motion Platform Is Doing To Your Inner Ear
This is worth knowing, because it explains something about your fear as well as about the machine.
Your sense of movement comes from the vestibular system in the inner ear, which detects angular rotation and linear acceleration. It is excellent at detecting change and very poor at detecting steady state. In a stable climb at a constant rate, your inner ear reports almost nothing, because nothing is changing. What it reports vividly is the transition into the climb, the transition out of it, and every bump along the way.
Motion platforms exploit exactly that. They cannot move you a thousand feet, so instead they give you a brief, accurate movement at the moment of change and then tilt slightly to use gravity as a stand-in for sustained acceleration. Your inner ear, which has no way of telling the difference, accepts it. This is why simulators feel so convincing despite traveling only a few feet.
The relevance to a fear of flying is direct. The sensations that frighten you are almost entirely produced by rate of change, not by magnitude, which is why a bump that feels like a hundred-foot drop is usually a few feet, and why the altimeter in front of you will barely twitch during turbulence that has your stomach in your throat. Seeing that mismatch demonstrated, with an instrument to check it against, is the most useful single hour of education available on this subject.
What To Ask For
Instructors will give you whatever you ask for, but most people do not know what to ask for. This is the list we would use.
- "Show me what turbulence does to the altimeter." The gap between what it feels like and what the instrument shows is the most useful thing in the hour.
- "Fly a go-around." Then fly one yourself. The maneuver that frightens people from the cabin becomes routine in about four minutes.
- "Pull the power and let it glide." Watching a light aircraft descend calmly at a steady speed with no engine running does more than any statistic.
- "Let me hear the whole radio sequence." Ask the instructor to explain each call before making it. The system stops sounding like code.
- "Put me in cloud." If your fear includes not being able to see, watching the instruments continue to work normally is worth the session on its own.
- "Let me land it." Optional, often the moment somebody laughs for the first time that day.
Who This Suits
It suits people whose fear currently prevents them boarding an aircraft, people who have been quietly ruled out by weight limits, people who want to test whether they can tolerate this before committing to a flight, and people who need a step that definitely will not be canceled. It also suits somebody who simply wants to understand what happens on a flight before their next trip, without any intention of ever becoming a pilot.
It suits you less well if you are already able to fly comfortably in a small aircraft, in which case go straight to a discovery flight for nervous flyers, or to the full fear of flying course if you want the structured briefing with an hour of real flight time included.
After The Session
The most common mistake after a good simulator hour is to leave it there. People finish the session feeling markedly better, decide they have made progress, and then do nothing for eighteen months, by which point the gain has quietly drained away. The simulator is a rung, not a destination.
Book the next step while the effect is still fresh, ideally within a few weeks. For most people that means either the fear of flying course with its hour of real flight time, or a straightforward discovery flight if the briefing content is not what you need. If the session was harder than you expected, the right next step may be a second simulator hour aimed at the specific part that was difficult, and there is nothing wrong with that as long as it does not become a way of avoiding the aircraft indefinitely.
We will give you an honest opinion at the end of the hour about which of those we think fits, including the opinion that you should talk to a licensed mental health professional if what we saw looked more like panic than like nerves.
What It Costs
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Full-motion simulator session, 60 minutes | $189 |
| Simulator, per hour, pay as you go | $200 retail, $120 inside a course package |
| Fear Of Flying Course, including one hour of flight time | $499 |
| Discovery flight, 60 minutes | $229 |
| Free consultation | Free |
Related Reading
- Fear of flying: what it is and how pilots would fix it — the reference page with the FAA accident data.
- How to overcome fear of flying — the exposure ladder this session is the first rung of.
- Fear of flying course in Los Angeles — the $499 program with an hour of real flight time.
- Full-motion flight simulator in Los Angeles — how the machine works and how its hours count toward a certificate.
- Are small planes safe — the numbers, with sources.
Fear Of Flying Simulator FAQ
How Much Is A Simulator Session?
The 60-minute full-motion simulator experience is $189. Booked as straight simulator time it is $200 an hour retail, or $120 an hour inside a course package.
Does The Simulator Actually Move?
Yes. The Redbird MCX sits on a full-motion platform that pitches, rolls and heaves in response to your control inputs and the simulated conditions. It cannot sustain acceleration, which no motion platform can, so it uses short movements and tilt to cue your inner ear.
Can I Stop The Session At Any Point?
Yes, instantly. The session can be frozen where it is and you can get out. For most nervous flyers that guarantee is the reason the hour works at all.
Is There A Weight Limit For The Simulator?
No. Our aircraft have weight limits for weight-and-balance reasons, but the simulator has none, which makes it the accessible option for anyone those limits have excluded.
Will It Be Canceled If The Weather Is Bad?
No. The simulator is indoors and flies on schedule regardless of ceilings, visibility or wind. That reliability matters when getting yourself to the appointment is part of what you are working on.
Can The Instructor Simulate Turbulence?
Yes, and adjust it up and down on request. Being able to experience turbulence deliberately, watch the altimeter barely move, and then turn it off is something no real flight can offer you.
Will A Simulator Session Help With Airline Flights?
It helps with the parts that transfer, which are most of them: the motion cues, the sequence of a flight, the radio work, the meaning of the instruments, and the experience of staying in a frightening situation until the anxiety falls. It cannot reproduce an airliner cabin or the fact of real height.
Do I Need Any Experience?
None at all. Most people who book this have never touched an aircraft control in their lives, and nothing in the session assumes otherwise.
Book The Session, Or Ask First
Call (818) 330-1318 any day between 9 AM and 9 PM and say you are a nervous flyer; it changes how the hour is run and who runs it. You can book the 60-minute full-motion simulator experience for $189 directly, or book a free consultation first if you would rather talk it through. When you are ready to leave the ground, a 60-minute discovery flight is $229. We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91406.