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Show HN: I made a flight simulator, except you're just a passenger (inflightsimulator.com)

2 points by rkotcher ↗ HN
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!

134 comments

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d--b
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
Thanks for playing! I'll be sure to consider so of those for the next release!
fortran77
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
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.
nullify88
The Boeing extension pack and watch how the plane deteriorates in the air in real time! Door plugs, MCAS, the works!
bigfishrunning
Dropdown TV sets, luxury! i seem to remember a projector and a screen at the front of the aisle :)
lejeanvaljean
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
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
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.

StilesCrisis
Not at all! Cars are an extremely common trigger for anxiety. You are far from alone in this.
password54321
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
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.
amelius
I like the idea of someone losing hundreds of millions of dollars when my plane goes down.
pjerem
I’m not at ease in an airplane. I rarely fly but i actually like it, but I’m really anxious.

What helps me is always taking a seat near the wings. First that’s where the plane moves the less. And moreover, it’s pretty reassuring watching them supporting the plane in their great stability, they always move way slower than the cabin.

gatio
Plus you can alert the crew if something's off before take off (eg. loose/missing screws/panels). A forner colleague of mine did that, and got to see the entire maintenance crew come out for an impromptu RCA and incident response.
lubujackson
Also useful for people who want to ride along with someone currently on a plane. "Honey, you are over Kansas right now!"

Useless things tend to be deeply useful to a select few.

I am loving this "re-weirding" of the internet. For the younglings, this is very much the sort of pet project that would bubble up in early internet days. No startup raising money, no pain point necessarily being solved, just one person's idea lovingly rendered to life.

tosti
I'm not afraid of the flight, for me its customs and surrendering all my data. They even want my balls ffs.
cjrp
BA (and presumably other airlines) run fear-of-flying courses where you have some ground sessions with flight crew explaining what happens during takeoff/landing, what noises you might hear, etc. Then you go up for a short flight as a passenger to sort of re-enforce what you learned earlier.

https://flyingwithconfidence.com/

arccy
first fly to the UK to take the course...
lateatdesk
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
Pretty cool! I could see leaving it up on another screen to enjoy while I go about my workday.
Ballas
Finally, a use for a second screen!
khazhoux
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
I'd pay $1 to upgrade to first class. $2 if I get a hot towel, a pre-departure beverage, and warm nuts.
ivolimmen
I always have warm nuts on a plane...
thoughtsimple
Seems to hate not having location access on iOS. Keeps refreshing until eventually Safari just gives up.
orliesaurus
Flying to NYC, sitting next to nobody, never happened to me before :) - see you in 4h
flawed_crater
Please remove the login screen. Is love to try this.
darknavi
Missing FCA (Glacier international airport in Kalispell, Montana, USA).

It's small but a beautiful flight!

rkotcher
I will look into adding it.. I'm all for beautiful takeoffs and landings!
modinfo
I love that this is in real time and this jokes :D Even we have chess game :3
etatester
Crashed within 10 seconds on iPhone 17 Pro. Love the vibes
djmips
ahhh your phone crashed! I was a bit confused for a moment... Could you imagine if the airplane crashed like 1 in every million plays?! :O
gizajob
Looks amazing for the 2 seconds before it implodes on iPhone though.
minikomi
You have to turn on airplane mode
PUSH_AX
It uses too much RAM, it’s vibe coded so makes sense
rkotcher
well, actually I had tested in iphone and did some things to but back on mesh size & also streaming terrain so that I'm not overrendering textures. I have not tested on all devices as I only have one mobile device. The tradeoff is render quality - maybe I'll make a lower triangle or 2K texture mode?
tosti
It's slow in FF, too. Cool for a flight simulator to crash, but it should simulate a plane crash. Not crash the simulator itself :)
vlabakje90
Immediately crashes my FF on Windows 11.
groestl
Next up: Airport Simulator! Enjoy security, customs, and the inevitable panic of missing your gate across more than 50 international airports around the world!
zergrush
really wish i could sit by the window
rkotcher
You can! just have to get out of your seat to then choose the next seat to sit in. can probably improve on that
mikeshi42
3 overhead reading lights for a 2-2 configuration? On a trans pacific flight? Literally unplayable.

Would love to see this open source and extended!

wafflemaker
Had to use uBlockOrigin to remove the login prompt. Think there could be a way to dismiss it without tricks like that.
ffsm8
I just closed the window instead, it wasn't that interesting
nader
haha this is fun!
noufalibrahim
It's very nicely done. I snapped the seatbelt on and that dread of a long boring flight automatically hit me. :)
ironhaven
I was hoping for a very detailed menu with more flight avionics in the in flight entertainment screen but I guess the speed and altitude in the HUD is all I get. I want to know the exact plane T am flying in
GreyMolecules
Hahaha this is awesome. I can teach what it's like to be on an airplane to my friend who has never flown before.

Currently playing on my usual route, ICN -> HKG. The flight path is too ideal. Due to airspace restrictions in china, almost every flight has to divert over taiwan in real life, but this one cuts thru mainland china.

tnolet
Is this visual style Fable or Astra. I see it everywhere now. It’s the new black and purple
zhaoziyuan2000
This is really cool! Also, my girlfriend suggested it would be nice if she can login and be on the same flight so we can fly home together.
rkotcher
thank you! I had actually made that feature and then removed it to simplify. I will consider adding it back :-)
kinduff
I asked for beef, they only had chicken. 10/10, average flight experience.
Walf
Beef or cow?
drayfield
Or you could check out the non-vibe coded Airplane Mode from 2020:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/931310/Airplane_Mode/

apexalpha
That's... why?

I can understand slow games like EuroTruck or Farming Sim. But what's the point of this?

rogual
These days it's pretty unusual to think of an idea that hasn't been done yet, so when you do, I guess you just don't think too much and go make it.
fc417fc802
Is there a mosquito simulator yet?
djeastm
Well, now I'm intrigued. I can envision some interesting mechanics...
matheusmoreira
Does everything have to be original and novel? I think reinventing a better wheel is a perfectly good use of AI tokens.
piltdownman
Case in point:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_Simulator

bartread
That one predates vibe coding by quite a few years though: a lot of hard work went into Goat Simulator, and there were no doubt other more obvious choices for how the developers spent their time, but they still chose to make Goat Simulator.
amiga386
Also it's a geninue game with goals to complete, mainly cribbing from games like the Tony Hawk's series.

Two separate categories: Meme games[*] don't have to be vibecoded, not all vibecoded things become meme games.

[*] A "meme game" being a game which is tries to be ridiculous and is predominantly popular because of social media exposure. I would include games like Goat Simulator, Horse Magnifier, Squirrel with a Gun, QWOP, Untitled Goose Game, Trollface Quest...

bartread
> Horse Magnifier

I can only imagine: clearly I need to check that out.

lIl-IIIl
Might be helpful for people who have never flown.
wj
Every once in a while I would put Flight Simulator 2020 on my desktop and work on my laptop. I found that watching the digital world pass by while working put me in a slightly different headspace. Not sure it increased productivity but working while sitting in an actual plane does provide me a bit of focus.

Train ride videos on YouTube scratch some of the same itch.

piltdownman
Nonwithstanding the human fascination with simulation and simulacra, Airplanes and Air Travel represent a fascinating cultural touchpoint with much insight and depth to plumb depending on what aspects you simulate.

For example, think of a history class charting flight from the Wright Brothers, through the Golden Age of Aviation, right to the present day. Even showing the drastic differences pre and post 9/11 by reference to the processes and experiences of commercial airline travel would represent a worthy pedagogical endeavour. We do a lot more to achieve a lot less in terms of making 'history come alive' currently.

xprnio
A game where you're narcoleptic and keep falling asleep at random unannounced times. While taking a flight from A to B, you wake up at different times entirely, on the same (or an equivalent) flight, seeing whatever was going on back then. Sometimes it's a flight with the Wright Brothers, sometimes you're flying during WWII, and sometimes you might just be on the plane heading towards the twin towers (right as you wake up back on your own original flight). Maybe even some mini-games where you might have the chance to foil a hijacking in progress, or maybe you need to be "the doctor on the plane", or maybe you wake up as the guy that's carrying the crying baby. You never know when, where, or who you'll wake up as.
latexr
Slow? There’s a Faming Simulator competitive esports league (because of course there is). You can find videos on YouTube.
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NietTim
> Mixed - 67% of the 355 user reviews for this game are positive.

And 10 euro, lol. I'll just go with the free one, thank you.

KellyCriterion
Interesting! But it seems there are quite some people who will pay for such content:-)