givemewings:
"Would you say that would be a 'usual' practice? In my experience I've had engineers 'ride along only twice in more than 6 years- once was an overwater sector and an insurer requirement to prevent unsched overnight in an unfavorable port... the other was an empty ferry sector."
I haven't seen it done in a US airline, but I've seen it elsewhere. For instance, I was on a 737 flight in Argentina, and there was the technician, in airline coveralls, in view of passengers, with a panel open and screwdriver out. The aircraft would make sudden maneuvers, each time he'd stick the screwdriver into the panel. Everyone would gasp. Of course, it was just coincidence. The sudden maneuvers were just the pilot thinking he was still in his Mirage fighter from his Falkland Island War days.