High-tech hobbyist donates flight simulator to N.S. aviation museum

Asif Ilyas is a professional musician who also built a flight simulator in his Halifax home, so he combined his passions for music and flying, to launch a podcast.

“I just had this idea of taking musicians on flights around places we toured,” said Ilyas.

The podcast series eventually had to come to an end.

“Doing the show was extremely taxing for me,” said Ilyas, who also decided the time had come to disassemble his flight simulator. “It broke my heart to think a lot of it would end up in a junkyard.”

Instead of going to a junkyard, Ilyas eventually found a new home for his high-tech homemade flying experience, and donated the unit to the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum.

“For it to be loved and used here in this amazing museum is incredible,” said Ilyas.

The simulator has been reassembled, and is already a major attraction for museum visitors.

“It is an experience and introduce you to what happens and familiarize you with what happens on the flight deck of an airline,” said museum member and volunteer John Liddard, has a background in computers and electronics.

Liddard has a hands-on role, taking people inside the virtual cockpit of a 737.

People inside a flight simulator, with the cockpit of a Boeing 737. (Paul Hollingsworth/CTV Atlantic)

“We give you a chance to experience trying to fly one.”

Both Liddard and Ilyas want further upgrades implemented, so the simulator could be used as a procedural training tool, in addition to being a popular and signature showpiece at the museum.

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