Squadron Ops Sim Center

This place is awesome! My wife and I went together one evening to try it out because it seemed like a fun and different experience. It exceeded expectations. We had an incredibly enjoyable time. It is one of those unique activities that you will end up talking about with each other for hours or days, and telling all of your friends about as well. The instructor is entertaining, patient and super-​qualified (former Air Force pilot). We spent the first 15 minutes or so learning about the very basics principles of flight, and then a few more minutes learning about the operations of the simulators. We then each took our seats in front of our simulators (they are not enclosed so no claustrophobia concerns here), which are incredibly sophisticated pieces of equipment — although, thankfully, you will need to use only a handful of the controls and instruments. The headsets allow you to communicate with the other players and with the instructor. The headset also responds to your head movements so that the screens show you the view from the cockpit that you’d see if you were actually looking out in that direction. You spend the first few minutes just getting your bearings and then you start to figure out how to use your weapons to attack either the other players or the other planes that the instructor sends up as targets for you. My wife is a pilot, and I am not, but the controls are straightforward enough that I managed to keep up with her for a little while. The instructor stays by your side and can help get you out of trouble, show you the ropes mid-​flight, or help you restart after you are shot down or crash. When it’s over, it is very hard not to start thinking about how you are going to try different maneuvers the next time you go. It’s a truly fun activity for adults, and the instructor told us that kids as young as fifth graders really manage to get the hang of it (and then love it, obviously) pretty easily. Highly recommended!

I bought a Groupon and took my husband. This sounded like a fun experience.
When we got there we were taken to a room where we learned about flying and the simulator. The simulators are in the same room. It was just my husband and I but you can bring a group of four.
I thought this was a lot of fun. We chose the more modern plane simulation. The instructor wears a headset so he can communicate with you and help you along. My only thing that would have made this even better is if there was motion in the seats.

OK, so this is a strange business in the 1^st place and a little embarrassing to say I am actually into SIMS. However, this is kinda cool. I was expecting a normally lit room with a couple computer desks and vertical blinds making clanking sounds when they knocked into each other when the a/​c kicked on. Plus a couple of 17 – 23 year old acne covered dorks with cracking voices and cheesy one-​liners working there. Not farther from reality. The outside of the place certainly made me think of the aforementioned. Going inside wasn’t much better. I passed up a room and saw a rack of aviation suits hanging and I though to myself…“please tell me they don’t make us wear aviation suits to sit in front of a computer; get a grip, its a video game”. Well, they dont. But I am afraid to know if people actually do dress out. That is a bit much.
So I was met with the guy who would later help me and my friend out. Very down to Earth intelligent mature 45 – 55 year old ex-​Air Force pilot probably just not wanting to be bored and wanting to make some extra cash.
The room was dark and made to look kinda army-​like. There were a bunch of computer monitors in front of a makeshift cockpit. It doesnt take much to realize that whomever put this together spent a ton of money on equipment. The processing power of the those computers (and probably a main server) could probably run half the country. The instructor was great. He was good at dumbing things down and went over how planes fly and how to dogfight in real life. He then patiently went over the controls on the SIM. He let us get warmed up and then turned us loose while never leaving either of our sides for advice and help.
The SIM ran perfectly. No hiccups. You wear a rather light headpiece which you can hear other people and what was really cool was that the computer screens would move vantages depending on where you looked. It was very easy to fly. There is no doubt that the computer SIM had been dumbed down so that anyone could fly. No take off and no landing. It starts in mid flight perfectly level. I do have limited experience with flight SIMS like XPlane and Infinite Flight and with just that basic experience I can assure that this has been dummy proofed because I can hardly fly straight in Xplane. Let alone in a real deal flight SIM in a F18 perfectly coming out of controlled rolls at 500 knots. And my friend never been on a SIM crashed the plane only once. But that is all a plus. When spending that much money, you dont want to spend it crashing or not getting off the ground.
I loved the experience. It is not cheap so Its not someplace I’ll be every Saturday but I would do it again if I saw a sale.

Nathan, our flight instructor, was funny and knowledgeable. We flew F-15’s and although we crashed a few times, we had fun flying over Russia and finding targets. It is worthwhile and a great find in Pompano Beach. We shot down various targets and could even shoot down each other if we wanted. :) I highly recommend this to others.

Awesome! My son and I took a chance and it was worth every moment spent. We will make this part of our weekend activities.

I brought my boyfriend here for his birthday, and we had a GREAT time! The instructor was really knowledgeable and informative– pay attention to the briefing before you begin, he will go over important details that allow you to fly! After the 15-​minute briefing we spent an hour in the simulator, through our headsets the instructor was able to give us pointers if he saw we were struggling. The experience was a lot of fun, shooting down the computer generated «targets» and also dogfights with my partner! The way the simulators are setup, you feel like you are flying a plane (we chose an F15, and it was AWESOME). We really had a great time, and I will highly recommend Squadron Ops to my friends!