An aspiring pilot has spent £2,000 on building an amazing recreation of a Boeing 737 cockpit in his spare room.
It took Phillip Evans, 58, a year to complete the installation, which includes all the buttons, knobs, levers, dials and screens that would be found in the real jet, attached to a wooden frame.
Phillip, from Manchester, says he has always dreamed of a career in aviation.
So after he retired from his job as a mortuary technician, he decided to do the next best thing.
The model cockpit – which Phillip built from scratch with the help of online videos – is hooked up to sophisticated flight simulation software that allows him to recreate real time journeys.
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His wife Yvette says that she expected the spare room, which became free when the couple's children left home, to be filled with nothing more unusual than a TV, bar and chairs for Phillip's pals.
But now, he disappears into the room for lengthy stretches, sometimes piloting his virtual aircraft for four hours at a time.
Phillip says the project helps with 'keeping my mind active'.
"The parts are expensive, I have to save up then buy them and then save up again," he says.
"I taught myself how to do it using videos online and there's also a manual.
"But everything is exactly the same as a 737, if I don't do the sequences correctly, I can't start the plane, I can even crash.
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"If I want to fly somewhere I have to plan a route and clear it with air traffic control.
"It's still a work in progress, but my wife doesn't mind. It's keeping my mind active, it's a lot to think about. It keeps me going."
But his wife doesn't mind, and is in fact so proud that she took to social media to share pictures of the cockpit, saying: "He built [this] from scratch, his very own aircraft cockpit, his dream was to be a pilot.
"I am so proud of him, what do you think?"
She later added that all she asks her husband is to bring her back some duty free shopping, although this hasn't yet happened.
The pictures have been met with amazement online, with one commentor saying: "Dreams do come true, fantastic."
Another woman wrote: "Wow. Absolutely amazing."
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