I have a frozen ATPL but for the time being i m an ATCO (area radar,and proud of being it
)...
I live abroad,and all the times that i fly home i try to get in the cockpit,and most of the time i succeed (thanks to my ATCO id
)
In my UAC we used to have lots of fam programs with airlines,but after 9/11 almost everything had been cancelled....
we r slowly restarting it (i`ve personally been in the 737 sim at VEX in brussels) but still it happens really rarely and only for very few people;
i ve been impressed by the job that those guys are doing (even having a rough idea of what to expect)and also simply in a normal flight we have the chance to see what goes on between CPt and FO...
same story the other way around,we ve had pilots from KLM visiting our center,and we ve kept them next to our ATCO on the position for a couple of hours to let them see what the real job is from our side,and later,they ve gone in the sim to try and work as ATCO themselves.....
boy that was fun!!!
i`d love to have more fam flights,as well as more fam visits of pilots to our center,we all have to get along in the sky ,but still it happens that someone gets pissed off....
at least we all have an idea of what the other person`s job looks like,i think we ll all think twice before starting complaining on the freq....
cheers guys.