Hi everyone, long-time lurker who's fascinated with commercial airliners and aviation in general. I had wanted to be a commercial pilot when I was out of college, but all kinds of other things got in the way, and here I am in my 40s with my own technology company and ~20 hours in my logbook (though a few of those on some commercial iron like 737-200 (United Airlines "Pilot for a Day" program) and 757 simulators (met an airline instructor once in the airport who took me for an hour in the sim).
I'm wondering if anyone knows how I would go about getting (obviously, paying for the privilege) access to a commercial sim, to explore and learn. Do airlines rent them out, or are there other outfits in town who usually train pilots, but also rent to whomever wants to use them? If so, are there requirements in order to rent time? I realize it will be fairly expensive, and I only would want a few hours to play, but I'm so fascinated by big jets, and dream of pretending to be a pilot for a few hours at a time in a sim. I also want to see how well my 20 hours + 100s of hours with Microsoft Flight Sim have prepared me for some landing tests.
Any thoughts or advice appreciated. Thanks!
- commercial jet lover in Phoenix