Any Qantas pilots here? Know a Capt. Mark Penklis?
 

IF you do, maybe you can forward on this article:

Captain Mark Penklis, inspired me to fly | The Roaming Pilot

Nice article and I'm sure he'd be chuffed to read it.
It was numerous trips as a unaccompanied minor between MEL and OOL on TAA 727's, and their associated flight deck visits, that planted the seed for me.
What a shame we can no longer do those sorts of things.

It all lead to the aforementioned skipper actually conducting my line check on a HKG trip!

Will do.

G'day ;)

Link posted on Qrewroom. I'm sure he will be made aware of it.

Great article. In a simpler time we had the opportunity to influence the lives of kids visiting the flight deck. Sadly the parasitic security industry has put a stop to that. :mad:

What a great article!!! I had two similar experiences pre 9/11, both times sitting in the jump seat for a landing into BNE. Once was from Christchurch in the 90's and once from Hong Kong, some 6 years later. The amazing thing was it was the same Captain (name escapes me) six years apart. I guess some Captains just loved being able to delight us with the experience, and this was one of them.

Shame my kids now can't experience the same thing in the new world we live in.

Hats off to all the pilots who used to take us into the cockpit.

Similar experience myself - over the years I have done lots of travel and pre-9/11 sat up front for many take-offs and landings courtesy of some great QF Captains.

It ultimately lead to me taking up flying for recreation and a PPL. A great pity these experiences are now closed to us, because I'm sure they brought a lot of young (and not-so-young) recruits into flying. And the industry needs 'em.

Just bumping this thread. Wondering if anyone knows Captain Mark Penklis.

As an avid aviation fanatic who was too scared to fly, guys like this who get kids into aviation should be praised. I wish now I could go into the cockpit of a modern jet aircraft. Seems Cptn Penklis made a huge impact on guys my age, I wish I had met him when I was a youngen.

Its not just Penklis, we all did it in the good old days. It also had a safety benefit as if you were doing a long haul like to Honolulu having pax up kept you awake and interested. Also met some really interesting people - the highlight was meeting Group Captain Cheshire - I didnt know whether to fall on my knees or just bow. He was really good to talk to and sat up for the landing. His wife Sue Ryder also came up. Flight Engineer 'Did you have anything to do with aviation?' Sue 'Did a parachute jump once into occupied France' Cant beat that.