For amusement one dark and long night, many moons ago and for no apparent reason, I tried this little trick on my FO, just to pass the time you understand! Even now I don't know what made me think of it.
Pitch black outside, no moon, the lights all dimmed, the movies all finished and no pole, (this was on a Boeing) when the FO went for a leak. (This in the days long before calling any of the CC to hold his hand btw) I dragged my black plastic rain poncho out of my Nav bag (tropical destination and I'm no idiot), dimmed the lights even further and covered myself in the poncho. By squeezing myself as far to the left of the seat as possible and sliding down, I disappeared in the gloom. A few moments later he returned to the cockpit, paused in the doorway and returned to the cabin. I learned later that he went to the back galley and asked the cabin crew if they had seen the Captain come out of the cockpit. They of course, said no. Minutes later both the FO and the No 1 came to the cockpit, looked briefly inside and my dear young FO said to her, "What the **** do we do now?" She replied something to the effect of making a PA so I decided the joke had run its course. When I threw the poncho aside and reared up out of the seat, the FO made an unpleasant remark, a more unpleasant smell and never forgave me, even until this day!
It did manage to pass about ten minutes of a long and dreary night and got everyone's adrenalin pumping for a while so not an entirely pointless excercise I feel. Ah, happy days eh?
Now I rely on The Economist and Sodoku, once all the movies have been watched that is.
