Originally Posted by
tdracer
1989 IIRC, I was flying Montreal to Vancouver (BC) on an A320 after a meeting with Air Canada. Before boarding, the agent asked if I would mind giving up my window seat in coach for an aisle seat in Business (duh!) so she could seat a family together.
After a very nice in-flight meal and a few drinks, I noted a flight attendant taking a couple of youngsters to visit the flight deck. As the A320 was still quite new and novel at the time, I wanted to see the flight deck as well - so I signaled the FA, told her I was an engineer for Boeing, and would be interested in visiting the cockpit if possible. A quick trip to the pointy end to confirm, and I was taken up front and introduced to the pilots. Talked to them at length about what they disliked (non-moving thrust levers) and liked (pretty much everything else) in the A320. I was in the flight deck for roughly 20 minutes before I figured I should excuse myself and let them get on with the job at hand...
Those were the days
What, as a Boeing engineer, did you make of the A320? I didn't realise it had been around that long, or that it had the range to fly Montreal to Vancouver. Most A320 flights in Europe are short, e.g., London to Brussels or Paris, but reading the Wikipedia article I see that it is capable of much longer-haul flights.