How Nathan Fielder Was Able To Fly A Boeing 737 With 150 Passengers

A couple of days ago, I wrote about the second season of HBO’s The Rehearsal, starring Nathan Fielder. It attempts to examine pilot communication issues, and culminates with Fielder flying a Boeing 737 with 150 people onboard.

I simply can’t stop thinking about that last episode. In this post, I want to talk about the logistics of how he was able to do this, since I’ve seen a lot of questions online about that. Yes, the whole thing was 100% real. Let me preface this post by saying that if you haven’t yet seen the show and plan to, by all means skip this post, though I’ll avoid sharing too many spoilers.

Yes, Nathan Fielder really flew a 737 in The Rehearsal

In The Rehearsal, Fielder notices how pilot communication issues are one of the leading causes of aircraft accidents, particularly with first officers not speaking up to captains when they see something that’s wrong.

He’s determined to figure out why that is. Since airlines aren’t really willing to help him, Fielder does what only he would do — he literally learns to become a pilot from scratch, charters a Boeing 737, and flies 150 actors around, for the sole purpose of seeing what it’s really like to be a pilot. The level of commitment he shows is simply other-worldly.

I’ve seen a lot of questions about the logistics of this, especially in the light of the 1,500-hour rule, so let’s briefly go over this. Fielder spent around two years to be able to get to that point (in addition to his other endeavors, so this wasn’t a full time thing).

He first got his private pilot license, then he got his instrument rating, then he got his multi-engine rating, then he got his commercial pilot license, then he got his Boeing 737 type rating. As he described it, “I became the least experienced person licensed to fly a 737 in North America.”

He did all of this with roughly 200 hours of flying. Furthermore, it’s worth noting that the first time he actually flew a 737 was with passengers onboard — all his training for the type rating had been in a simulator (which is pretty normal).

I think what’s so inspiring is how bad Nathan seems to initially be at it — at the beginning, he mentioned how his flight instructors claimed he was one of the worst students they ever had, to the point that he was passed around between flight instructors, since no one could figure out what was wrong with him.

Now, as many people know, in the United States you need 1,500 flight hours to earn an airline transport pilot license, which is typically what’s needed to land a job at an airline (there are some shortcuts). So, how could Fielder fly a large jet full of people, despite not having that many hours?

Well, it comes down to a loophole in the rules, if you want to call it that. An airline transport pilot license is needed in order to transport passengers as part of a commercial operation, and that requires 1,500 hours. However, if you can find someone to lend you a 737 and bring 150 of your friends along (who aren’t paying), then you don’t need an airline transport pilot license… of course that’s no small task either.

Before anyone labels this as reckless, let me point out that in many others parts of the world, it’s common for people to become airline pilots with not many more hours than Fielder had at the time. The 1,500-hour rule is the highest you’ll find anywhere in the world, and its merit is questionable.

An Avelo Air Boeing 737 was used for this stunt

The other interesting part of this story is the plane that Fielder used. As you might expect, it’s probably not easy to get a reputable airline or leasing company to just give you a 737. Like, how did those calls go? “Hey, I’m the least qualified 737 pilot in North America, I’d like to rent a plane for a couple of hours for an HBO stunt?”

In the show, Fielder ended up in airplane graveyards, seemingly ready to activate an out of service aircraft, since no airline or leasing company would rent him a 737. His luck finally changed, when an unnamed operator was willing to rent him a 737. Interestingly, the operator didn’t want to be associated with the project.

However, it’s clear that the aircraft in question was an Avelo Air Boeing 737-700. You can tell based on the purple tail, even though all of the branding was otherwise removed from the aircraft in the show.

And of course since aircraft movements are all public, we know exactly when this all happened, and which plane was involved. The big flight happened on February 16, 2025, and involved the 17-year-old jet with the registration code N702VL. Long story short, the plane was based in Raleigh Durham (RDU), but repositioned to San Bernardino (SBD) for this show, flying westbound on February 14, 2025, and eastbound on February 17, 2025.

On February 16, the plane operated two flights, which were 1hr35min and 1hr56min in length. Looking at the flight paths, it seems that one flight operated out in the direction of the Nevada border, which was probably the flight with 150 actors onboard. Then I imagine the other flight was operated for the areal footage, probably without passengers onboard.

Bottom line

The finale of the latest season of The Rehearsal is unlike anything I’ve seen before. In TV shows, you’ll often see people go great lengths to investigate something. But to literally get type rated on a 737 and find a company that will rent you a 737, all to determine what it’s like to be a pilot? Damn, that takes commitment (and deep pockets… thanks HBO!).

Anyone else find this situation to be as fascinating as I do?