Ride or Take the Stick in a Vegas Stunt Plane
A stunt-plane flight out of North Las Vegas Airport, with an instructor on a second set of controls the whole time.
Sky Combat Ace flies Extra 330LC aerobatic planes from a hangar at North Las Vegas Airport, and this booking sells three of its flights: a ride-along, a hands-on aerobatics flight and an air-to-air dogfight. No flight experience is needed.
Every plane has dual flight controls, which lets the instructor take over at any moment, and you decide how hard the maneuvers get. The operator runs each flight as instruction with an FAA-certified flight instructor. It also notes that the FAA requires a parachute on every aerobatic flight, and you wear one.
The booking page prices the three flights per person. Operation Recon, where the pilot flies, is USD 659. The Afterburner, where you take the controls, is USD 1,119. Sky Combat is USD 1,879 for one flier or USD 1,419 each when two to six book together. Sky Combat is designed for two or more fliers, and the operator launches an adversary plane when one person books it alone.
Pickup and drop-off at most Las Vegas hotels are included, seats are sold from age 12, and one booking takes up to nine people. Departures on the calendar are 7:00 AM, 9:00 AM, 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. The operator lists Thursday to Monday as its flight days, and the calendar blocks most Tuesdays and Wednesdays too.
Extreme Flight Experience in Las VegasOperation Recon, the Afterburner or Sky Combat in an Extra 330LC, with pickup and drop-off at most Las Vegas hotels. Seats from age 12.www.viator.comWho Started It, and Who Flies With You
The jets in the two photos above are F-16s. Nothing on this booking puts you in one: the flights are in a propeller-driven aerobatic plane, the Extra 330LC named on the listing.
By the company's own account, Sky Combat Ace was started in early 2011 by Richard "Tex" Coe, a former U.S. Air Force major and F-16 pilot who served in Italy and South Korea and was later assigned to Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas. The company traces the idea to the incentive rides he gave non-pilots in the F-16, and says it opened with two Extra 330LC planes.
The operator describes its instructors as pilots drawn from the Air Force, Navy, Marines and NASA as well as civilian aviation, and says each one is an FAA-certified flight instructor. The plane named on the listing is the Extra 330LC, which the company says is certified to plus or minus 10 G.
From a Strip Hotel to the Hangar and Back
The shuttle is a van with Sky Combat Ace branding. The listing sets pickup 45 minutes before your departure time at most Las Vegas hotels, asks you to be ready five minutes early, and asks for a call if the van is more than 10 minutes late. The operator's own pages narrow that to Strip and Downtown hotels, with some restrictions and limited seats. The hangar is at 2634 Airport Drive in North Las Vegas, about 20 minutes from the Strip by the operator's estimate.
The listing calls this a two-hour experience. The operator's own advice is to keep three hours free for check-in, the safety briefing, picking a call sign, suiting up and photos by the plane, and it usually books four to six people into each two-hour slot. After an August 2026 flight one traveler wrote: "Once we landed, we waited almost over an hour for our shuttle to come get us and bring us back to the hotel." The lounge has a pool table, foosball, TVs, snacks and drinks for the wait.
Flight video and photo packages are sold at check-in and are not part of this booking; the operator lists them from USD 50 per person. Friends who are not flying can ride the shuttle if there is room, and the operator asks for a call 24 hours ahead.
How Much of the Flying Is Yours
On Operation Recon the pilot does the flying: an aileron roll, a barrel roll, a loop and a hammerhead, at the intensity you ask for. The listing gives it 10 minutes of maneuvers, while the operator's own page for the same flight says 12 to 14.
On the Afterburner the instructor demonstrates each maneuver, then hands you the stick to fly it, and the operator puts that flight at 16 to 20 minutes. A solo Afterburner flier in February 2026 felt it was short: "we were in the air only for like 15 minutes".
Sky Combat runs 25 to 30 minutes by the operator's count: up to five engagements, first to three wins, scored with an optical targeting system that sets off smoke from the plane you hit. The operator says those fights reach up to eight times the force of gravity. A traveler who flew alone in 2025 pointed out that photos of your plane from the outside need a second plane in the air. Another, sick near the end of a 2026 flight, wrote: "I gave the hand signal to tone it down and we just flew straight."
The Limits That Decide Whether You Fly
The operator's FAQ sets the Extra 330 limits at 80 to 265 pounds and no taller than 6 feet 4 inches. The booking page's notes print 240 pounds and 6 feet 3 inches in one place and 265 pounds and 6 feet 6 inches in another. Anyone between 240 and 265 pounds, or taller than 6 feet 3, should ask the operator which figure applies before paying.
Seats are sold from age 12, and anyone under 18 needs an adult to sign the waiver. Infants are not allowed in the aircraft. The operator asks that flyers be free of high blood pressure, heart, back or neck problems and motion sickness, and says expectant mothers should not ride.
The booking page says FAA rules require a photo ID at check-in. Shoes and socks are required, and the operator suggests a warm jacket in winter. Unapproved personal cameras cannot go up. Anyone who shows signs of intoxication can be turned away with no refund, and the operator names hangovers as its most common cause of airsickness.
Booking details:
- Three options: Operation Recon, the Afterburner or Sky Combat, all in an Extra 330LC.
- Included: hotel pickup and drop-off, a noise-cancelling headset, sunglasses, a locker, and snacks and drinks in the hangar lounge.
- Not included: gratuities and flight video or photo packages.
- Full refund if you cancel at least 24 hours before the departure time, none inside 24 hours.
- The operator says the pilot makes the weather call within an hour of the scheduled launch.
Back on the ground, the hangar wall carries a 120-foot timeline of front-line fighter jets since World War I, and the lounge has a drink waiting while the adrenaline settles.