I flew non-rev today from Providence, RI to La Guardia, NY on the Colgan Air Saab 340B early this morning today. What a blast! We cruised at 245kias at 8,000ft. Even better yet on the return, I was on a Beech 1900D a few hours ago and I was the only passenger! I asked the Captain if he would leave the doors open in flight and he said "better yet why dont you just come up in the cockpit with us inflight!" So here I am, 16 years old with 60hrs of flight time in real life...riding in the Beech 1900 cockpit (standing up of course)!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had the best day of my life and I will post a picture site with all my pics I took inflight so you all can see. If you say its ILLEGAL, incorrect. The FAA says the Beech 1900 is the only plane that can legally fly without the cockpit door closed (Gulfstream in FL only has curtains) and where pilots are able to interact with passengers. The Captain told me. Well.... what a day!

Wow! I am envious of you and your experience :D

Heres a pic of the plane I was on. Exact plane too. Same Reg# http://www.airliners.net/open.file/458850/L/

sounds great, glad you had a blast.

The other thing is seatbelt usage. Just be careful about who you say it too, not that no one else has ever done it before! For takeoff and landing you are required to have a seat belt on!

Let me also add my experience to this discussion,I was flying SAS from ESSA to KORD the other year. It was approx. 6 months after the eleventh of September 2001. In the middle of the flight I asked the purser if he could ask the flight deck if I could come over for a visit. It took a while and I had to go to the loo. When I came out of there, there stands a flight officer looking at me. He says - Are you the one asking for a flight deck visit? - Yes, that's me, I answered. -Well, you don't look too al-Quaida to me so come on.So I was invited to the flight deck. Spent a few hours in there, talking about heat pumps and heating systems. (As I am a HVAC design engineer and the captain was building a new house he was very interested to hear my solution to his problems...lol) I had a few breaks where I could ask the crew about their job, but as we got close to Canadian borders they said I had to leave as the canadian law didn't approve me being on the flight deck. That said, it all depends on what operator you fly with and (unfortunately) your looks...Regards,

The B1900 Captain said the FAA states they can do that. Plus, this Isnt my first time. On all of my B1900 flights the doors were left open. Gulfstream in Florida dont have doors. They have a sliding curtain, is that gonna stop someone haha. Plus, I was the only passenger on this flight so thats why they let me come up. And I was a non-rev passenger (my dad worked for the company prior too). This whole 9/11 thing is Bullsheet, no offence. This security Isnt really preventing a whole hell of a lot and there are plenty of sane people in this world. The pilots clearly saw I was a kid at 16 and just loved flying. He also knew my friend whose an employee there. Their just being nice and considerate. Ease off the whole Oh no you cant do that because its after 9/11 crap. I hate when people dwell on that.Ryan

"That said, it all depends on what operator you fly with and (unfortunately) your looks..."Yeah, sad but true. This is the world we now live in, thanks to those people on that fateful day.

Well I was wearing Khaki's, a Blazer with a USAir Tie, and a white undershirt with a nice complexion and freshly shaven. This was still by far the nicest pilot I have ever met. He was drinking a coke can and I took a picture so he said "dont be putting that on the web and changing it to a budweiser" haha. The crew was a riot. They laughed the entire time and were the best crew I have ever had. Big props to them. I am going to write them a letter. -RD

Hey RD,What a nice experience you had! I'm glad these kinds of things still happen, and aviation enthusiasts get to see the real pros in action! It's something else alright :). This is for Mats too.I'm also sick of the 911-patronizing. It's entirely useless and won't change a thing. The security measures are what they are, and telling a law-obedient citizen that "you shouldn't have been there" is (in my book) the worst kind of case of 911-crap. Your enthusiasm is obvious, don't loose it :).regards,Terops. past 911 I have flown real full flight sims ~ 13 hours, so it depends entirely on the people how it all goes.

Yes it

I agree 100%, it is a shame that world affairs have led to this. I miss the days when you could go into the cockpit of a plane and speak with the pilots and discuss flying and see different aircraft. As a military aviator and frequent passenger on commertial flights I wish I could converse with fellow pilots. I hope as customers of air travel and citizens people will demand political and industry leaders to come to their senses.Todd

Anyone here a real Colgan Air Beech 1900 pilot :-). If so Id like to talk to you.

Where are the pictures? :(Jacek

I got one uploaded up there somewhere, but I just sent some off to airliners.net and myaviation.net as soon as they are uploaded I will give a link. :-)