ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Visit EzyMarts in Sydney, Australia, and you’ll find the expected convenience store merch, but you’ll also find a completely unexpected feature—the cockpit of Airbus A320 airliner, complete with a professional-grade simulator being operated by fully uniformed “pilots.”
The Drive reports that Ahmed Abdelwahed Nasreldin, an Egyptian aerospace electrical engineer, emigrated to Australia and purchased a convenience store franchise location. He then bought a disassembled Airbus A320 simulator cockpit, which arrived in more than 2,000 pieces and without assembly instructions. Due to a high-profile court hearing taking place near the c-store, journalists stopped into the store for refreshments and found the cockpit—and wrote about it.
Patrons can pay to pilot the simulated aircraft for an hour or just pay for a few minutes in the cockpit for the perfect social media photo. Nasreldin’s cockpit is now the defining feature of the c-store, so he says he’s going to change the name of the store to Airport Convenience Centre.