Had a business trip that made me select a parksleep & fly at the Hilton at LAX a few Saturdays ago. 6 o'clock flight to Rochester. Arrived about 7pm the Saturday night before, and before hitting it early decided to go down to the bar to grab a quick bite to eat. Gentlemen next to me was yacking with another next to him, who left shortly thereafter, and come to find out it was a UA (actually CO turned UA) 737 Captain that was relocating from Hoboken NJ to LA, and he was on VACATION for the transfer! The only time I've ever run into these guys has been in a hotel elevator or lobby. He had just arrived the night before the long drive across the country and was holing up at the Hilton. Jackpot!

 

Of course, after upgrading (from default aircraft) to the PMDG 737 NGX, and having to learn a BUNCH of stuff, I had a poopload of questions, and after a bit of intro yack, and told him after I got married almost 25 years ago (which we discovered we both met our wife in '87 and were married in '88). and since then I've had to rely on MSFS to keep the bug, and the newfound joy I found with the 737, I asked him what was the significant difference between VNAV SPD and VNAV PTH after noticing it in the PFD. He looked at me with a startling gasp and said " Boy, you REALLY are into this #&^#*!. After quite a few napkins and drawings of descent paths, I thought I had it. Covered everything you could possibly ask a real captain (except what bleeds are all about, now that I recall!), and I think we both enjoyed the heck out of it. I looked at my watch about 11pm, and briefly wondered if I could actually pull this off, but told myself I had just won the lottery and couldn't pass up the opportunity. Kept going with conversation galore, including some smokes outside where we ran into a SWA FA who was a bit setback with our "observations" of their shortcuts, but all was well and we kept going with the convo. We wound up closing the bar about 2am (and closing out a pretty hefty bar bill since I bought all of his drinks), and I went up to my room and decided a 2-hour nap will beat a stay-up. Made the flight the next morning, and good thing it was a 5 hour one. Sunday night was an early one, and a good thing due to the timechange.

 

Funny that as we talked, a few times he blurted out to the bar patrons around us that he was on vacation and wasn't flying in the near future! I can't believe I actually ran into this guy- it just DOESN'T happen, especially in a bar on a Sat night, on vacation, and not flying! We never exchanged info (all I know is that his name is Jeff and that he found a place in Marina Del Rey), and I regret that. But oh well...if anyone happens to know of this guy, I'd sure like a heads up. I could buy him drinks for a month!

 

Unfortunately, as I got back home 6 days later, I realized I had forgotten alot of the tutorial he had given me. But I will forever remember and relish the 5 hours I had to talk to a real 737 Captain- one that was as excited as I was. I have remanded myself to knowing that will never happen again.

 

Sean

Thanks for sharing, great!

Pretty cool to have a chance encounter like that .

 

By the way, bleeds 'bleed' air from the engines and use that for the pressurisation and air conditioning system. Does that cover the question you forgot to ask? If not feel free to ask here and I'll give it a stab (and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong).

Nice story! You are lucky you were able to "bend his ear", and to have a few beers and a smoke, sounds like heaven!

 

I was on vacation last year and during a layover in KMSP, the MD90 I was about to board for the trip to KSJC was delayed because of equipment issues. The first officer had come around to the gate area to keep the crowd of waiting passengers apprised of the event, and when he went around asking if anyone had questions I had managed to strike up a short conversation, mainly peppering with a few questions. For instance, he mentioned that they can make up for lost time by cruising faster, or flying a direct route, and I suggested he play around with the cost index. He was astounded to say the least! I felt like I had correctly answered a complex question in school, it was quite a neat feeling. He offered a few observations on the MD90, such as the fact that this particular airframe previously flew with SAS, and that because they are so slippery in the air (almost like our beloved PMDG -800 NGX), they have to add slats at 250kts to help slow down. I learned so much about the MD series, which I have no experience with in Flight Simulator.

 

This year, my vacation plans took me to Honduras, and I found myself in a Jetstream J31. I sat in the front row, and had an excellent view of the open door cockpit and watched the full flight progress from startup to shutdown, a very interesting experience as I have flown the PMDG J41 a few years back. End of that flight, I struck up a short conversation with the pilot. He says he has a dual monitor setup where he practices engine failures and other such emergencies to stay fresh, and when I asked if they ever use a autopilot, he said it was all flight director and manual flight all the time!

 

I'm very introverted, and maybe a little intimidated by these folks who I have the utmost respect for, but I have learned that if you have the chance to talk to flight crew at the airport, and they don't appear to be busy preparing for their workday, you should take advantage of the opportunity and strike up a conversation. Most of the time, I will thank them at the end of the flight, or congratulate them for a greaser landing, but I have fond memories of interacting with folks who I consider my heroes. It's always fun to see the look on their faces when they get the obscure references and questions from us flight simmers. I'm proud of our hobby and it's amazing how close to reality we are with the recent advances in payware aircraft.

Sean - nice story.

 

I am a enthusiast portrait photographer and one of my model's shares a house with a 737 FO. I have not yet been fortunate enough to meet him, but when I do, she will get ignored :wink: (despite how pretty she is) and he will get bombarded with questions on the 737 and charts! I haven't mentioned my simming interest to her in the hope that I get the opportunity to speak with him some day. Then again, maybe I should so she can arrange it. :biggrin:

Sounds like a win-win situation. I reckon a pilot on vacation getting to talk shop all evening with his drinks paid for must have felt he'd won the lottery too!

I was in Houston waiting at the gate for my flight (the inbound was delayed). So everyone, including the crew were huddled around the gate waiting. I was within ear shot of the pilots, when this guy walks up to them and starts to tell them that he is into Flight Simulator-- and proceeds to ask the pilots a bunch of stuff. They guy had some good questions, but was combative. Like for example, if you have ever told someone how something is done and they say that isn't the way they were told how it was done. After the guy walked off the pilots cracked some jokes about him to the effect of "another flight simmer". I thought, what an arrogant guy he was.. to have the opportunity to ask questions from a crew and to blow it like that.

Nice story. We all like to meet commercial pilots.

I actually met a retired Dash8 300 pilot over the forums one time, several years ago, and just by chance he was coming this way riding on a jump seat. He spent the day with me and showed me a lot of stuff about flying the Majestic Dash8. That was a very nice experience.

I remember sitting in the flight deck of a Lufthansa A319 two years ago (see profile picture). I was able to talk with the captain and a gorgeous female FO for about 10 minutes and to actually impress them a bit with my knowledge about this particular aircraft and some departure procedures. ^_^ Such a great and friendly crew! I could really learn a few things during those ten minutes of talk.

Sounds like a great opportunity. As I work in a different transportation profession (railroad) that has a great deal of casual fans, I've been in his shoes. I can't count how many times I have been approached by a railfan somewhere who proceeds to tell me how I do my job- and if I mention that he is incorrect they want to argue about it. Personally I find it comical, but plenty of my co-workers get po'ed about it and then proceed to pass judgement on all fans as being that way. I still remember the days when I was on the outside looking in, and try to always remember that...

With all that said, over the years on my layovers in the Chicago area, I've managed to cross paths with a number of airline pilots who were also on layover- and I've found that a little small talk about the transportation industry in general can often get them to open up. Had one guy I would see regularly up near ORD who was an AA 737 captain, he was a rail buff and therefore we each had information the other was interested in.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

"Wow! Found a UA pilot in a LAX bar! 5 Hours Later.....

 

.....after we had 15 tequila shots and 10 vodka-redbulls each, I saw him in the captain seat of the 737 I was boarding....

 

Sorry, couldn't resist :rolleyes:

"Wow! Found a UA pilot in a LAX bar! 5 Hours Later.....

 

.....after we had 15 tequila shots and 10 vodka-redbulls each, I saw him in the captain seat of the 737 I was boarding....

 

Sorry, couldn't resist :rolleyes:

 

*badum tss*

 

Sorry, couldn't resist either :rolleyes:

I work at McCarran International, so I get to talk to a lot of pilots.

 

Sometimes they can be pretty depressed/upset/short temperered, but if you ask the right questions or have that twinkle in your eye only true lovers of aviation have, they all remember they have the best jobs in the world and don't hesitate to share the fun if they have time.

 

All it takes is a well placed "Hello" and "So what do you fly?"

"Wow! Found a UA pilot in a LAX bar! 5 Hours Later.....

 

.....after we had 15 tequila shots and 10 vodka-redbulls each, I saw him in the captain seat of the 737 I was boarding....

 

Sorry, couldn't resist :rolleyes:

And now I can't resist .

 

Kiev-Moscow flight. A drunk pilot comes into the cockpit. He looks at co-pilot and notices that he's drunk too. Then says:

- Idiot, we agreed on this earlier, I drink today and you stay sober. How could you be so drunk so early.

Silence in response from co-pilot.

Ok... flight itself is nothing. But who will drive the car in Moscow?

 

Thanks everyone...glad to see that there are a few more close encounters! Some great stories also!

 

I had written up quite an elaborate response here, but then my login must've timed out and I lost it...I'll try again (got to remember to use WordPad to write these!).

 

I'm not good at doing the multiple quotes and such, so I will respond to a few of you here:

 

japascoe: Thanks for the info, but I think I got that far with knowing what bleeds are- I'm interested in the hows and whys to use them during takeoffs and landings. At a matter of fact, I do have a BIL that is a AA ground/simulator 757/767 instructor in Dallas that I prolly could ask, but usually when I ask his stuff about a 737 he looks at me like I was trying to extract brain surgery procedures out of him. But assuming 757's and 767's prolly have bleeds also, he can answer it for me!

 

NGXfanatic: geesh....now I guess I gotta be NGXfanatic2. Interestingly, Cost Index was another trigger that his jaw dropped when I mentioned it (context was programming the FMC). And I often wondered why a pilot who flies all the time has the sim bug. But you know, it must be because they enjoy it, they love sharing it, and most pilots are great guys that also love to drink! He also quizzed me about how to slow down the slippery 738 ("the darn speedbrakes are worthless as [you-know-what]")...and the answer was GEAR!! I now have found myself doing that on a few wild and crazy approaches!

 

tazisdylan: nothing ventured, nothing gained!! Go for it!

 

kevinh: EXCELLENT POINT! I really do think he was as engaged as I was once he saw how excited I was to yack with him.

 

dighost: you should've gone over and decked that guy...learn to take one for all the Simmers (play on Giffers, get it?!) out there! :rolleyes:

 

FSXman: geesh....so now I gotta be FSXman2? Funny you mention a D8....that was my second leg flight that weekend. Had Seat 1D....the backwards one. Never again. Reminded me of a SWA flight long time ago when they did that. Not the most pleasant of circumstances- now I know how the front FA's feel.

 

bogdanmisko: wow....you reminded me of the other two great things that happened on that flight to Rochester (Actually, Cleveland)....be-you-ti-mus UA FA deadheading there (which in and of itself is also as rare as getting 5 hours in a bar with a 737 captain!), sitting in the isle seat on my row, AND AN EMPTY SEAT BETWEEN US ON A FULL FLIGHT! Gawd...I should have died and gone to heaven right then.

 

MD11Forever: interesting tie-in....planes & trains. Never would have put the two together. But it's just another example of how they are just regular guys who like to talk about common things.

 

MMartinov: ha! very funny....but would you believe that I did a very noticable "Stage Left" upon coming up on the cockpit door when boarding the next morning on my 737-900?

 

WestAir: Ahhhh...the infamous and almost forgotten Golden Rule. I can't help but think Jeff saw my twinkle (in my eyes!...had other twinges going talking about flying :lol: but we won't talk about those ) and that's what kept things going- he could have left at anytime.

 

killkenny1: geesh...am I gonna have ta be killkenny2? Seriously, good 'ol Rooskie joke. Let me guess: it was Vodka?! I've thought twice about mentioning this, but some of my best approaches have come after a few glasses of wine!! Anyone else wanna confess?

 

Thanks all...great time here on the board....lots of great convo and enjoyed it. I didn't think this would have been as popular as it was. I did see on my phone that someone asked if it was a particular person's name, but the Mods must've killed it. But if anyone knows of this "Jeff", I'd appreciate knowing who it might be...I could buy this guy drinks and smokes for another couple of months until I get certified! ^_^ (J/K...only in my garage).

 

Sean