Cockpit Visits

[sam051]

It's sad they won't let you go in the cockpits anymore. I remeber when i was 9 years old. My mum asked the air hostess "Can my son please see the cockpit?". The air hostessess reply was "Of course, I can take him right now". I was so excited and it was a mighty wonderful plane. An Ansett 767-200 flying from Sydney - Perth. It was mid flight, and you could see everything, the dials, the controls everything. The pilots were really nice and talked to me and asked me if i wanted to be a pilot. I tell you what, it certainly did influence me to the studies I am doing at the moment!

Now you might think i'm a freak, but it is horrible how somethings in the world take out the magic of other things. Visiting the cockpits was magical, literally, walking up the aisle, thinking that your so special and especially to think that you are from economy class but you get such a wonderful privledge. Ansett is my inspiration, as many of you probably already know. 

My best friend who is like 50 years older than me, asked if he could see the cockpit. This was in a Qantas 738 back in '99, they took him up to the cockpit, and he is a retired airline pilot.  They let him stay from cruise to landing, they actually let him land the plane. My veteran friend was a great pilot with passion as big as the aircraft itself, if not bigger.

Anywho, thats all i really wanted to say.

If you have any experiences please feel free to realte them in this post. 
And be serious, this is an experience i've never wanted to forget... 

[StephenM]

I've been very luck to have had 4 visits in recent times. They were with a variety of advantages behind me, with the most recent 2 visits being with the company I worked for. But I do agree its sad that that current state of affairs are the way they are. I guess its the price we have to pay for differences in opinions and cultures.

[Tiger In Training]

I went and sat in the captains seat on a 777 once when i was about 10 in NYC. I even got to put his hat one.

[zkvac]

I guess I'm really lucky with what my Dad does as I get to go in the jumpseat of the Dash-8 quite often, which is awesome, especially if it's an early morning flight and we're climbing through the top of the cloud as the sun is rising

The last time I was in the cockpit during flight with another airline was on the way back from Fiji in about 1999 or 2000 in a Polynesian Airlines 738. I managed to get the whole approach and landing in Wellington  ;D

Most airlines still let you have a look at the cockpit after landing, there's no harm in asking, most of the time you'll get a yes.

[Shawa]

I still remeber the Fokker 100 Cockpit I was allowed to visit when i was 7 or 8 (my first flight too) that was 20 something years ago

[iranair777]

I've had a few:

Iran Air 747-200 (EP-IAH) x2 - stayed there for quiet a bit (got there when we were over northern turkey and left just are the start of our descend). first time i was sitting on the top deck (best seats in the house) and the air marshal was sitting beside my dad (so a row of three seats) and my dad knew him as a friend from ages ago. Anyway, managed to get in the cockpit, asked a few questions etc usual stuff. You gotta love a 30 or so year old 742 cockpit in the dead of night with all the lights on and something year old pilots - just magical!  (just a shame i wasnt allowed my camera on the second time, didnt have a camera i could use on the first )

FR 738 (EI-DWB) - had a quick look - was my first ever 737 flight and was so excited i managed to take very blurry photos of the cockpit. 

[CHR]

I got to look in a 747-400 before 2001 - lots of switches and things everywhere! Shame you can't do it any more.

[Mosha]

I remember a few years back. I was flying LHR - BKK with BAW. The pa asked for a passenger to identify himself, no one responded. After 10 minues the chief steward came to our row of seats. He asked the guy in the aisle seat if he was MR ***** , he confirmed that he was. The steward told him that a friend of his who was a BA pilot had contacted the pilot on our flight and would he care to visit the cockpit and afree upgrade to 1st class. He turned it down! After the steward failed to get him to change his mind he left. As I was in the next seat, I said I would have ripped their hand off. He just shrugged and said he get's sick of it. 

[Virgin Serbia]

I got a look in the cockpit of a Swissair MD-11 back in 1997