Written by My beautiful wife is sometimes a nervous flier, so she has learned a technique for getting more comfortable when she must take a long flight. As we board the plane, she asks to greet the flight crew, which the airline will almost always arrange for her. Then she chats a little with the pilots, so that she feels more comfortable with the people at the plane’s controls. I usually go straight back to my seat, so I don’t participate in the visits.
I noticed she was very relaxed on our trip to Japan, following her pre-flight stop in the cockpit of the 777. A day after we arrived, one of the crew members sent her this photo to remember her visit.
Yep, that’s Cathy in the captain’s seat.
Flight 52
Awesome photo – love all that glass!
Only two years before 9/11 my mom got to go on British Air’s flight 52 – they have this annoying request to pull down the shades so that people can watch the in-flight movie. My mom and I like the shade *up* so you can watch more important things – the aurora borealis, the milky way, and the RAF playing around in the night.
So the stewardess asks my mom to put the shade down, and she complies but explains to the stewardess why she likes it up.
Five minutes later – she gets invited to the flight deck. This is an older Boeing 747 – still had a navigator seat complete with navigator, and a cloth curtain (no door at all) to the cabin.
She got to watch the sun rise from 32,000 feet in the cockpit.
I’m still envious!
I remember as a kid being invited on an Eastern airlines flight deck while in flight – don’t remember the plane, Still have the little plastic winds they gave out.
My hat is off to the older pilots who didn’t live in fear – they had fears, but they didn’t wallow in them.