A Little Boy Wanted To Know How We Started the Plane

[oldman]

Just before I retired, I had a flight attendant tell me she was asked by a 10 year old little boy’s mom if he could visit the cockpit. The mom told the F/A that her son really liked just planes and flying, so I said “Sure, bring him in.” He wanted to know how we started the engines, so I explained all of the procedures to him. After I finished, he said, “Just as I thought. there is no key, is there?” I told him no. He said a kid at school tried to tell him that you had to have a key.

I asked him if he wanted to sit in the jump seat, which is a seat in back of the Captain and I would show him how we start the engines and line up on the runway, but he would have to return to his seat before takeoff. He was very excited. Once we were pushed back, the APU was already turned on, so I ordered the first officer (F/O), to start engine 1, then engine 2. We needed the thrust from the engines to give us power to take us out to the runway.

The boy asked a lot of questions and I could tell he was very anxious and into flying. Once we got to the runway, I had the F/A return the boy to his seat and then we took off. His mom was very grateful to us for helping her son enjoy his time in the cockpit. It was then that I learned he had terminal Leukemia and it made me feel so bad that I couldn’t keep him in the cockpit during takeoff. To those who have never been in the cockpit during a takeoff, it’s amazing.

 

[oldman]

It’s a shame how things have changed since 9/11. At the Captain’s discretion, we can allow a kid into the cockpit, but very few ask these days. Before 9/11, we could allow children into the cockpit even during flight. A pilot does that today, it could cost him or her their job.

Depending on how much time we have before the flight is supposed to depart, I will allow a child to come into the cockpit and explain some of the features, but with the tight schedules pilots have today, they have to get all the paperwork done before departing.

I had a kid ask me if we ever had a gauge go bad. I told him we did have that happen a few times and this is why both pilots have their own set of gauges. His next question was how did we know which gauge was correct? The gauge that is showing the incorrect information will generally be so far off, it couldn’t be correct.