Chad Smith was a wily maverick in his jet fighter, rushing over the rocky terrain and closing in on his enemy head-on.

A quick hit of the trigger on his control stick and a rapid string of machine-gun fire struck the other plane, sending it on an unavoidable course to destruction.

 The Buena Park man's target: His 14-year-old son, Jaysen.

"Oh, come on, Dad!" Jaysen said to his father through a headset from a cockpit replica of an F-16.

The pair recently faced off in a computer-simulated dogfight operated by the Flightdeck Air Combat Center, located in a nondescript office park just west of the Honda Center.

While other parts of Orange County have seen other similar businesses crash and burn in recent years, Flightdeck's founders are counting on a recipe of booming development, robust tourism numbers and Anaheim's aspiration to be seen as a premiere entertainment hub to keep their fledgling venture sky high.

It is the only business of its kind operating in the county.

"It's a big challenge because a lot of people aren't familiar with flight simulation as entertainment," said Flightdeck co-founder Tom Hubbard, who goes by the title of "commanding officer."

Hubbard, with business partner Paul Wigboldy, opened operations in November 2005 with $150,000 in start-up. Since then, the business has attracted dozens of people each week, in addition to corporate parties that use the game for teambuilding events and squadrons of adult players who come monthly to compete in this computerized hobby.

Sometimes ex-military or pilots might drop by, but "it's typically your average Joe and Jane with no flight or video game experience," Hubbard said.

Flightdeck strives for an authentic experience. The 3,500-square-foot facility is decorated with aviation posters and books, jet seats, helmets and miniature aircraft.

Before a fight, each player puts on an olive green jumpsuit and gets a lesson from a flight instructor in the briefing room about how to operate the simulator's controls and throttle, maneuver a successful take-off and landing and communicate through the headphones.

"We encourage trash-talking," instructor Mike Danskin told a group of youngsters during one such briefing.

The "hangar" is filled with seven cockpit simulators, which can cost about $35,000 each and require a small ladder to get inside. In front of the machines are individual 12-foot-tall screens that show the programmed landscape.

A worker keeps track of each person in a control room via headsets, giving directions – and encouragement – when needed.

For Huntington Beach resident Matthew Ferretti and his friends, their recent one-hour dogfight was light on trash-talking and heavy on missile attacks.

The teens played fast and loose, especially Brian Ely, who's logged actual flying time on a Cessna, taking trips to Catalina with his grandmother crocheting in the passenger's seat.

Grandma would have been proud, as Brian earned 27 kills – and the title of top gun – in the dogfight.

"As many times as I could, I went with the guns," he said about his winning strategy.

With business keeping steady, Hubbard and Wigboldy say they're looking for a larger facility in Anaheim that can accommodate at least two more cockpit simulators, with an eventual goal of expanding to other cities nationwide.