Well lost my interest
It depends on what you sign up for. An all day two sortie flight with 5-6 fights per sortie will run you ~$2000 these days. This is a whole fighter pilot for a day experience from the brief, flights, fights, debrief, brief, flight, fight and debrief. This is the better value for your dollar as even though it's more expensive you get more flying. Like anything in life there's room to negotiate but you need to bring something to the table like a second individual or a group to make it worthwhile to the company that they'll get the airplanes in the air.
I did this back in 2003 with another AH player (who I owe a rematch, if you read this...) and it was a freaking blast. They travel around the country to however many locations, the pilots were good people and the flying was great fun and a fantastic learning experience. Once you've done it, you can go back for $700 per flight in today's pricing (or that's how it was at the time, the requirements for their "Frequent Flyer" program may have changed)
You will learn the basics of flying in formation, get acclimated to the airplane with some tracking exercises, follow the leader, basic aerobatics, etc. As you get accustomed to the flying you'll then find a nice comfy piece of sky to do your fights, fight, debrief after each engagement and usually score a couple-few kills. We took a hands-off approach from the instructors and they didn't coach us. At the time I was a student pilot with all of 20 hours or so and one aerobatic flight in an Extra under my belt going against a far more experienced pilot who had flown with them several times. I got my butt handed to me but I did get several great gunsight evasions on tape. That's a highlight of not only my flying career but also came about strictly because I grew up playing Air Warrior and Aces High. I'd like to get him back in the skies whether it's in a Marchetti or in my own airplane whatever that may be.
