Those of us in ATC who were able to take Familiarization Flights have some interesting tales to tell. We’ve found ourselves: the only person awake in the cockpit, involved in emergencies and exciting situations, hung upside-down in the harness by fighter jocks and regaled with terrific flying stories. Perhaps we can start a thread of these tales from the past so the “new kids” can learn from a program that may never be available to them.
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My First FAM
Walking into the cockpit of a mammoth DC-10, paperwork in hand and requesting a jump seat from the Captain for the first time is an exhilarating experience. As a private pilot and en route controller, I knew something of what to expect, but I’ve got to admit, I was nervous.
The crew were very helpful in getting me situated in the comfortable seat behind the Captain next to the awesome picture-window. The seat had all sorts of controls: a handle for up and down, another for back and forth and a few I didn’t quite understand.
As we taxi for takeoff, the chatter of ATC a cool background to the staccato litany of check-lists in the cockpit, I give my seatbelt one last check and rotate my seat to face full forward. This is really exciting!
“UAL571 Heavy, wind 090 at 13, turn right heading 120, Runway 8, cleared for takeoff.” Here we go! The DC-10, ponderous at first, begins to pick up speed. 50 kts, 100 kts – we’re really rolling now. Wow! Awesome!
V1. Rotate. V2.
The nose lifts up, the ground starts slipping away and . . . oh, oh. My seat starts turning to the right, rotating so I face the First Officer. It keeps going and I’m staring at the Flight Engineer. In a moment I’m facing nearly backwards. My legs and arms flail about, but to no avail. I’m sitting backwards in the cockpit of a DC-10 on my very first FAM flight.
Did I mention: I’m feeling like a complete idiot?
The crew got quite a kick out of seeing an ambassador from their government looking so foolish and as soon as we were above 100 they had the Flight Attendant come in and get me properly arranged.
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The Lucky Vector