"Author: tower
Date: 11/09/2006, 11:00 am
cf:

Always flying from LAX to Europe (10-11+ hours)an intriguing way to pass the time is to <b>partake of the flying lessons the cockpit crew offers.</b> May be only available on United or AA, don't know about Continental, Delta or NW or any of the foreign lines. Simply make your request a few weeks in advance of your flight.

Stu T.&quot;

Does anyone know if this is for real??

I know that United (and perhaps some other airlines) regularly offer an audio channel on which you can hear air traffic control communications, but I'd hardly call that flying lessons.

Cockpit crews are too busy flying the aircraft to give lessons, and FAA regulations prohibit anyone but crew members inside the cockpit during flight.

I've been on United flights where the captain has made an announcement that anyone who is interested in learning more about the flight/flying could tune into channel 9, then s/he would spend 10-15 minutes giving some kind of talk. I recall one that explained a little about each of the Boeing aircraft and another that explained the various terms you hear when listening to ATC communications on Channel 9. I don't recall any of these talks in the last year or so, but a couple of years ago they seemed to be doing it quite a bit.

Also, I've been on a couple of United flights in the past year that had ground holds at takeoff due to conditions at the airport to which we were flying (LGA and ORD, big surprise). Both times, they taxied out to the penalty box, and then the captain announced that he'd turned off the seatbelt sign and opened the door and anyone who wanted to could come up and see/learn about the flight deck.

Other than those sorts of things, I've never heard about &quot;flying lessons.&quot;

Before 9/11 (11/9 for our European friends) I regularly rode on the flight deck for portions of transatlantic flights, though not on US airlines.

A request to the flight attendant usually resulted in an invitation, mostly from somewhere east of Greenland to somewhere west of Ireland. I have ridden in 777, 747, and 767 cockpits.

The pilots were pretty bored up there and seemed to enjoy having a fascinated amateur. My father used to fly this route a lot in the early 1950's in DC-6's and Constellations, so it was fun to talk about then and now.

In my father's day, the Coast Guard [?] maintained two ships permanently on site (Ocean Station Alpha and Ocean Station Bravo) in the North Atlantic for planes to aim for when they had to ditch so that crew and passengers had a chance of being rescued!

We live in a much more reliable age!

Don't forget Ocean Station Charlie, Ackislander! And Delta, and Echo, and (in the Pacific), November, etc etc etc. Yes, it was the Coast Guard, and I spent many months tossing around on ocean stations. No Coastie is weeping crocodile tears for their demise.