Hey folks,

I'm flying tonight in a very short decision. I need your help! I want to get inside the cockpit.

some background:

I've been there before! my dad has 2 friend who flies 757. but the problem is I am not flying with their airline. I heard somewhere that you can write a note/ letter and ask the flight attendant to pass it to the captain. should I do it? what should I write in it? any fast help is appreciated! sorry for posting it here, but that's the greatest place in my opinion.

I thought all cockpit visits had been stopped for security reasons.

 

May get a chance to have alook once on the ground, try asking the cabin crew manager, purser, maybe you will get lucky.

Ad-hoc visits are a thing of the past. Your best bet is to ask your dad to ask his friends what the official procedure for their airline is, and go through all the security clearance procedures and so on before hand. There was an excellent write on this forum a year ago or so where a youngster went through the whole process and flew in the cockpit on a long haul international flight (Dublin to Miami?). Both the youngster and the pilot are forum members here so we got to hear both sides.

Ad-hoc visits are a thing of the past. Your best bet is to ask your dad to ask his friends what the official procedure for their airline is, and go through all the security clearance procedures and so on before hand. There was an excellent write on this forum a year ago or so where a youngster went through the whole process and flew in the cockpit on a long haul international flight (Dublin to Miami?). Both the youngster and the pilot are forum members here so we got to hear both sides.

I would like to get more info on that one... do you have a link? something?

Your best bet is to ask the flight attendant if you can pop into the flightdeck briefly after landing.

 

Shouldn't be a problem at the gate if the crew are not busy.

 

Since 9/11 jump seat rides or inflight visits for non staff members is a thing of the past. I can no longer get a jumpseat now and I am technically considered staff. Flight crew only

 

Back in the day jumpseating was the perfect way to get around when flights where full. Check in staff would think I was crazy for wanting to sit on the jumpseat for 7 hours, I absolutely loved it.

 

 

do you have a link? something?

If you search for "The story of my Aerlingus flight" in the Hangar Chat Forum, you'll find the description of the flight and some discussion of how to try to be accepted.

unless its air france...the french dont like being told what to do,  and you know how good their safety record is....

KLM have this rule about friends and family of the crew being allowed now too I believe at the skippers discretion. AF seem to be letting more in also - judging by all the new jumpseat videos from pax coming online. Hopefully in a couple years we could start to see more aviation enthusiasts being let in - even if a security clearance was required before. That is probably wishful thinking too - but you never know. 

 

When I was flying back from Frankfurt a week or so ago - there was a cabin crew dead heading in club world. I asked him; "Why would you not want to sit in the flight deck?!" - his response; "It's boring and uncomfortable". I wanted to rip his ID off and stick my passport photo over his ID LOL.  

Back in the day,(last century) it was easy enough.You only had to show a minor interest and you were in.

Two occasions I can remember One RyanAir flight on a BAC 111 and one Aerlingus (both in for the landing).

Probably it would require some special arrangement, it's certainly possible outside the US at least based on the amount of in flight cockpit videos "Just Planes" have released. None of the post 9/11 videos seem to include US airlines so I guess USA is still being overly paranoid about this. 

 

A visit after landing if the crew isn't too busy definitely shouldn't be a problem in most of the world, just ask the flight attendants. Been in cockpits of one A320 & one 757 after landing, both aircraft belonged to European airlines.

 

But an actual in flight visit would indeed surely require a special arrangement of some kind way before the flight, with most airlines at least. 

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Well, I can't speak about the US but here in Europe you can get a jumpseat ride on shorter flights (especially domestic) if you kindly ask during the boarding process - most crews of all major european airlines are very kind and happy to have young flight enthusiasts take place on the jumpseat. That's my experience at least.

 

Just ask the FA when entereing the aircraft if you can take some pictures of the cockpit -  when positive and after a short chat witch the captain he/she might ask you whether you'd like to spend the flight in the cockpit. (They will tell you however not to publish any images or video footage of your flight on the internet since that is against the law and might cost them their jobs.)

As far as I am aware, in the US and Asia, your possibility of getting near the cockpit, even on the ground, is 0%.

 

If AF is 'opening the door' so to speak, US authorities, especially Homeland Security, the USAF, FBI and ATC will be very interested to know this for AF flights in and out of the continental United States.

 

Please remember countries in Asia have the death penalty for importing drugs and they deal with terrorism quickly and punish severely. People forget how sensitive security is in Asia and it wasn't them that was hit in 911 but they know better like some countries in the a Middle East through experience.

 

You rarely hear it in the news but if you go looking you will find plenty of information about the response of countries into security situations.

 

France and especially AF have also similar security measures from their recent experiences. I am surprised they allow cockpit visits at all.

France and especially AF have also similar security measures from their recent experiences. I am surprised they allow cockpit visits at all.

 

As far as I know most European airlines do allow cockpit visits on the ground, it's not a big deal at all. I don't really even see any logical reason to prevent cockpit visits when the aircraft is standing on the ground, engines off. 

These guys don't seem to have much of an issue arranging access to cockpits of different non-US airlines, of course it's business for them but still: 

 

http://www.justplanes.com/

 

They have filmed plenty of European, Asian & African, Southern / Central American and Canadian airlines in post 9/11 times. Bought a couple of DVD's from them some time ago. 

 

 

 

Well, I can't speak about the US but here in Europe you can get a jumpseat ride on shorter flights

 

That's surprising, I know many relatives / good friends of a pilot flying can arrange such a thing, however I haven't heard about strangers being allowed into the cockpit mid flight in these paranoid days without some kind of a prearrangement. 

 

Sounds risky to pilots as it's indeed against common regulations, unlike a visit on the ground engines off which is commonly acceptable.