Families on flight decks?
 

Again , I wasn’t sure where to post this...
My sister’s been BA cabin crew since 1989- long haul until the post covid ‘everyone’s now mixed fleet’.
As an aviation fan , any ride on an aircraft works for me but I particularly loved being able to sit on the flight deck for departures & landings.
Always at the captain’s discretion of course & I was always made welcome on 747 & 777.
After the September 11th attacks , BA understandably banned crew family from the cockpit.
I am curious , is it policy on all airlines or do some carriers still allow it?
I’m not complaining , tho’ I miss things such as the JFK approach at night & I have always struggled with the idea that the captain’s missus may be a secret terrorist!
No sarcasm please , it’s a genuine question.
Thanks again.

I think you will find it’s the same all over. Sometimes it can all turn to poo though, an example

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_593

Who knows?
 

In my remaining lifetime I can't imagine en route flight deck visits being permitted again, family or not.
I've had a few before 9/11 which were sometimes work related, sometimes as a result of being offered the jump seat, and on one occasion asking the cabin crew if the Captain was someone I knew in a previous job ( same name, different person).
Nonetheless it led to a thirty minute stay on the flight deck of a 777 with a fabulous view skimming just above the clouds, with the 2nd Officer showing us through the various instruments and systems, and how they worked in flight.
A shame that the opportunity is denied now, but understandable.

It has happened, common sense has been applied from time to time.

My best jumpseat ride was on a flight to Zurich where I was the only pax. The cockpit door was left open and I was supplied with plenty of vodka and tonic. All pre-9/11.

The US airlines permit crews to jumpseat but they need to have crew ID and a raft of other permissions. Europe? I haven't heard of any one j/seating unless they are required to be there.
As for families? I really doubt it. Of course there may be some countries that permit it but I am not aware of them.

FlugzeugA
Like you I have had a few cockpit visits over the years, the best being a landing in Kai Tak the old Hong Kong airport in a CX 747. However I cannot think of any airline which would allow that now.
You maybe able to do it on a private jet if you are charting it, but I am not sure. It is a shame as I am sure a number of pilots got the flying bug from visits like that when they were younger. I can’t see it coming back in my life time either.

Cheers
Mr Mac

Thanks all.
A pity but understandable.
I’ve been very lucky , flight deck for every take off & landing when accompanying my sister , except once.
JFK at night was memorable as I was there from beginning the descent & the amount of other traffic , normally unseen from the cabin , was incredible.
I went on the crew Xmas trip to Montreal , 777 out & 747 back.
Evening departure & we were about to push back when the tower asked ‘Speedbird ... , are you going to join in the Xmas spirit by putting some festive lights on?’
On another occasion outbound , I was told I could go to the flight deck on the 747 & they were doing check lists when I got there.
No need to interrupt or say hello at that moment , as I was expected.
I sorted out the jumpseat , belt & plugged in the headset without instruction.
When they’d finished , the Captain welcomed me & said ‘I won’t explain anything as you’ve obviously done this before.’
He then pointed at the roof with ‘If things go wrong , there’s a hatch there- you won’t need to look for it as you’ll be following ME!’
MrMac , the only time I couldn’t get on the flight deck was into Kai Tak.
However , I am still on an ID90- beautiful people board at the front & go left!

To this day I am sorry I did not work harder to take advantage of an offer to ride jump seat on a JAL flight from LAX to GRU with John Deakin in the 90s.

There's at least one airline on the eastern side of the Pond that has (or until recently had) a US style system: crewmembers could jump seat in certain defined circumstances but all sorts of caveats.

Families, nowhere as far as I know.

Sadly this is the case. However, as we already have a few flight deck stories in this thread, let us have some more! Make this thread a joyous celebration of that time and, if you have any photos from your visits, please post them too. All are welcome!

Many years ago flying with 'Buzz' from Stansted - Marseille/Marignane.
On one occasion - instead of the usual approach over the etang from the north,the crew told us we would be approaching from the south (ie from the med and approach over the coastal hills).
I was in a cheeky mood that day and asked the cabin crew if it was possible to get the jump seat for landing (I explained that as a rigger - I would not be distracting the crew with silly questions LOL).
I could not have wished for a friendlier crew,the capt was an ex Hatfield rigger and the F/O had also worked on a/c (C130's ?).
The F/O even asked my return date and told me he was flying that day and that i was welcome on the flight deck,that didn't work out as there was a 3rd crew member aboard (and anyway the weather was crap https://www.pprune.org/images/smilies/smile.gif),I did hang about in the cabin after landing to chat to the F/O and thank him again.
If either of the pilots frequent prune...thanks again for a great flight .

Someone posted a video on Instagram the other day about being the single pax on a Widerøe (I think) Q400 and she was invited to sit in the cockpit for the full flight. She was even given a headset

I've only been in the cockpit once during flight, but that was a repositioning flight after working all night to fix the aircraft. This would have been in 2011 or so. But it ws great seeing the approach into CPH from up front.

2005, an internal flight in PNG (Dash8), having figured out how things work there (to a certain extent), asked cabin crew to ask flight deck if I could go up. No problem; sat through the landing and was told I should have asked earlier to be there for take-off!
I guess there were cross-winds to contend with. What struck me was the amount of control input the Captain was supplying. Yoke all over the place. But aircraft descending precisely down the centre-line. Wings level. Passengers would probably have been "worried" to see what was required to produce this.

As a child (probably late 1980s, maybe early 1990s) I was once invited up to the flight deck on a charter flight to or from Greece - probably LGW to an island. I want to say it was a 757 for Air Europe, but don't really it recall it well. I remember being disappointed as I was too short to see ahead out of the cockpit window, and slightly baffled by the huge number of dials and switches. I remember the captain being friendly and asking questions and me being rather shy - I would get so much more benefit from such a visit now, but obviously there are reasons why that won't happen, and my children won't get that same experience.

Much more enjoyable were the flights in the front seat of various Cessnas when we were on our honeymoon in NZ back in 2010 - I think we were given headsets and I was able to identify most of the dials and switches by then!

My first visit was on a VC-10 as a newly signed member of the BOAC Junior Jet Club. December 1965 and the very first flight of my life, LHR-JNB, via CIA + NBO. I know that my siblings and I visited the flight deck but do not remember any detail - the whole event was just so exciting. I was nine years old.

The second was a Cessna 172 in January 1967 at Grand Central Airport, outside JNB as we were then living in Pretoria. It was a local air-tour for my siblings and I.

The third would have been a VC-10 Super, JNB-LHR (via NBO) on a daylight flight in June 1971. They were very much 'old school' flight decks with Flt Eng, Nav and fabulous dials and levers!

I shall have to think carefully as to which was the next visit.

NATS engineer in the 1990's: we had ID90 and also the odd occasion when the biz card offered on board would yield an invitation (in the days when NATS and CAA logos were identical). Best visit for me was on a return on Alitalia to Heathrow from Milan on a 3-crew A300. Apart from all three crew turning port side during the taxy to wave to the legions of spotters at the perimeter fence (heart-warming, that), it was the way on the climb out the first item on the checklist about 1000' was to get an ashtray from a Fiat Mirafiori on to the radio pedestal and Eng to light up three fags, one per crew member. Such class! The other bit was almost the entire cruise the Captain chatting to me about life, families, his skiing etc.

Also on arrival at 27R, turning off 180deg getting a prime location view of Concorde in the flare- hearing the proud Italian crew drooling and sighing dreamily was very memorable.

But I also count the scenic route into Cape Town on KLM, complete with historical commentary among my fondest memories....

I'm bound to agree, not again in my lifetime

Leaving LAX for TYO, B-747. Gave the usual Welcome Aboard rubbish, route, weather, time of arrival etc then added that if this is your birthday then make the most of it as in about four hours time we will cross the international date line and fly into tomorrow, and that will be the end of it.

A couple of hours later a stewardess brought up a birthday card that they had cobbled up on the back of a First Class Menu card and all signed for a "Lady down the back whose birthday it is ", and wanted the Captain's signature added. I refused and said " I want to see her first, bring her up. "

A few minutes later this gorgeous lady walked on to the flight deck and said "Hello, I’m Xxxxx "

I signed the birthday card and …..we were married 5 months later. ( 34 years ago )

I was lucky to get a day trip Gatwick to Alicante and back on the flight deck of a Laker Airways Bac1-11. 4th November 1979. Also got invited to stay for the landing on SQ 747 into Osaka Kansai 2 days after it opened. Air NZ 767 from Taipai to Auckland sat in flight deck when an alarm when off which turned out to be a toilet smoke alarm as one of the pax tried to have a sneeky cigarette

Many years ago loading a Monarch B.720 to Tel Aviv - slight c*ck up on the booking front, one pax too many. Flight crew said we'll take them on the jump seat, went along the whole line of pax waiting to board, getting increasingly incredulous that nobody was interested.

Ended up leaving late after offloading a family :sad: