Flying from the sofa (and yes, it counts)

Cockpit Briefing

Some of my best training flights happened without an airplane. Just me, a chair and a checklist. It’s called chair flying, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: you fly the whole flight in your head, step by step, before you ever sit in the real cockpit. Cheap, always available, and surprisingly effective.

The Moment

The first time my instructor suggested it, I laughed a little. “Sit at home and pretend to fly?” Yes. Exactly that.

So one evening I sat down, closed my eyes and started. Seat adjusted, belts on. Left hand on the stick, right hand on the throttle. Mixture rich, prime, throttle cracked open, starter… and after about two minutes I got stuck. Wait, what comes after the engine start again?

That was the moment I understood why this works. In the real airplane, the engine runs, the clock ticks and the instructor is waiting. At home, there’s no rush. Any gap in my head shows up right away, and I can fix it with a look at the checklist instead of in the air.

My flatmates were probably wondering why I was sitting on the sofa mumbling “Grenchen Tower, HB-…” to nobody 😂.

The Lesson

Chair flying is simple, but a few things make it much better:

• Use the real checklist. Go through it item by item, in the right order, and touch the imaginary switch where it would be in the cockpit. Your hands learn the layout, not just your head.
• Say the radio calls out loud. Whispering doesn’t count. Saying them out loud trains the words and the rhythm, and it makes the real call much less scary.
• Fly in real time. Don’t jump from takeoff straight to landing. Climb, level off, turn, check, configure. The slower and more detailed, the better.
• Add a surprise. What if the tower gives me a different runway? What if the engine coughs after takeoff? Thinking through one “what if” per session builds calm reactions.
• Keep it short. Fifteen or twenty focused minutes are more useful than an hour of daydreaming.

It works best for procedures: engine start, circuits, the landing flow, and emergencies. And before a new route or a new airfield, I fly it in my head the evening before. When I get to the real thing, it feels like the second time.

The Personal Part

Flying lessons are expensive, and every minute in the air counts. Chair flying gave me a way to prepare for free, so I could spend the expensive minutes actually learning to fly instead of trying to remember the next checklist item.

It also calmed me down. Before my first solo, I chair flew the circuit again and again. When I finally sat alone in the cockpit, it all felt familiar. I had “been there” already.

And honestly? I’ve started doing this for other things too. Before a presentation at work or a new trick on the skies, kite, …, I go through it in my head first. Same idea, different cockpit.

One Takeaway

You don’t need an airplane to practise flying. Close your eyes, take the checklist, and fly the flight once before you fly it for real. Your brain doesn’t mind that the chair stays on the ground.