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Show HN: I made a flight simulator, except you're just a passenger

47 points rkotcher 1 day ago 22 comments

Buckle your seatbelt, secure your tray table, and open your window shade. Now you can simulate flying anywhere in the world as a commercial passenger, from takeoff to touchdown. Terrain, weather, and realtime sun position included. Don't worry, the latest release now features legs, so you can get up and go to the bathroom on longer flights. Enjoy!

d--b 1 day ago | parent

Nice.

Waiting eagerly for the "crying baby" extension pack. The "get to your seat" MMO. And the "I want to pee, but the guy next to me is sleeping" campaign.

Also, inflightsimulator: 1980, with ashtrays and lethal weapon playing on dropdown TV sets

rkotcher 1 day ago | parent

Thanks for playing! I'll be sure to consider so of those for the next release!

fortran77 34 minutes ago | parent

What a great idea! How about, a kid behind kicking your chair, the person in front of you abruptly putting his seat back all the way, and a person of size next to you spilling into your seat.

EagnaIonat 20 minutes ago | parent

Or the passenger who is friendly and wants your window seat, but doesn't want to straight out say it. Then turns deranged when they find out they are in the middle seat for the whole flight.

lejeanvaljean 1 day ago | parent

You know what? I had fear of flying. I did a training with a pilot in a simulator, but it was in the cockpit. I don't have fear of flying in a simulator or in the cockpit. I have fear of flying as a passenger, I'm sit in a chair. That's what I would have liked during my training. I told that to Air France and they did not understand but this might seriously be useful.

rkotcher 1 day ago | parent

Interesting, thanks for the idea. Would be pretty cool if this app did have some real-world applications, beyond being a bit of a meme app. Thanks for the comment!

sublinear 10 minutes ago | parent

This is going to sound insane, but something like this for the backseats of various common, and maybe even exotic, cars would be cool too.

I have similar problems being a passenger in an uber for more than 15 mins. I lose my mind on roadtrips when it's not my turn to drive.

password54321 1 day ago | parent

I don't think you can completely eliminate this as people naturally don't like giving up their agency which is usually going to produce at least a low level of anxiety.

recursivecaveat 12 minutes ago | parent

Agency and information in a way. I actually feel safer in a tiny 4 seater plane than a jet, even though objectively that's probably backwards. Being able to look at all the parts of the plane, how the movements derive from the pilot's actions, actually see out the front, it is more reassuring. More similar to being a passenger in someone's car. It probably doesn't hurt that it is easier for my mind to imagine a Cessna gliding gently to earth than a passenger jet.

aaronbrethorst 47 minutes ago | parent

UAL used to let you listen into the cockpit to ATC chatter: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17656352 — I understand this was really helpful for calming some passengers' nerves during flying.

lateatdesk 1 day ago | parent

I like how much work you've put into just being a passenger :) I'm building a little world in the browser myself, so I like finding projects like this.

tony-ay 1 day ago | parent

Pretty cool! I could see leaving it up on another screen to enjoy while I go about my workday.

rkotcher 14 hours ago | parent

Thank you!

seemaze 44 minutes ago | parent

no

khazhoux 36 minutes ago | parent

Genius doesn’t always look like you expect it will. Well done!

(Kill the login panel though —- it wouldn’t go away for me)

fortran77 36 minutes ago | parent

I'd pay $1 to upgrade to first class. $2 if I get a hot towel, a pre-departure beverage, and warm nuts.

thoughtsimple 36 minutes ago | parent

Seems to hate not having location access on iOS. Keeps refreshing until eventually Safari just gives up.

orliesaurus 29 minutes ago | parent

Flying to NYC, sitting next to nobody, never happened to me before :) - see you in 4h

flawed_crater 15 minutes ago | parent

Please remove the login screen. Is love to try this.

jameson 9 minutes ago | parent

Hrm. I can play it without logging in

darknavi 11 minutes ago | parent

Missing FCA (Glacier international airport in Kalispell, Montana, USA).

It's small but a beautiful flight!