From: mbullock@ADS.COM (Michael E. Bullock)
Subject: A-320 cockpit visit (long)
Organization: Advanced Decision Systems
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 00:13:17 GMT

While on a recent business trip to Canada this week, I had the
pleasure of flying with Air Canada on one of their new A-320s. After
having read the A-320 thread on this newsgroup, I was interested in
seeing the cockpit and talking to the crew about it.

I was impressed with the comfort of the aircraft - lots of leg room,
quiet, and Air Canada supplied free headsets and a really good meal.
During the cruise portion of the flight, the door to the cockpit was
open and the crew was happily accepting visitors (quite a change from
US carriers where you're lucky if they put ATC on the headsets!!). I
quickly finished my meal and, after asking the flight attendant, I
went up there. Nealing just behind the pilots, I was able to see
everything that was going on. I asked the crew how they liked the side
sticks (and the lack of control pressure feedback). While they
admitted they would prefer more control "feel", they were quite happy
with the aircraft and the FMS. I asked them about the Strassburg
accident and the FO showed me the glideslope switch which they thought
was the likely cause. The system was just as Robert Dorsett had
discribed in his postings. When they began their decent, they politely
asked me to return to my seat.

On the return trip to the US on Air Canada, I again asked the flight
attendant if I could visit the cockpit. She checked with the crew and,
bingo - I was up there! This crew was even more friendly than the
last. It turned out that the first officer flew for a weather
modification company that I used to fly for as a summer job when in
collage. So we knew many of the same people. On top of that, the
captain knew my flight instructor (she now flys for Air Canada) from
when I got my Canadian commercial license! So we had a great time
talking about that and they showed me many of the systems of the
aircraft. I could tell they loved the A-320. They weren't so concerned about
seat-of-the-pants flying as they were having all the automated systems
that the A-320 provides. For example, I was impressed with how, when
told to hold for sequencing into SFO, they just punched in the holding
pattern into the flight computer and the aircraft did the rest. The
holding pattern appeared on the navigation screens and the aircraft
dutifully traced around the racetrack.

I kept wondering when they would ask me to return to my seat. After a
while the captain asked if I would like to stay up there for the
landing. It didn't take too much arm twisting to get me to strap into
the jump seat!!! I was careful to not talk too much and mostly just
watch them work. The captain was very casual, asking me the names of
some of the landmarks in the SF bay area, asking me about the 1989
earthquake, etc., while the FO flew the approach. Since this was my
first observation of a landing from the cockpit of an airliner, I was
surprised at how high above the ground we were we touched down. A
quick taxi to the gate and the flight was over. The captain said that
the charge for letting me stay for the landing was that *I* had to say
goodbye to (other) passengers as they filed out from the aircraft. ;-)

Overall, a fantastic trip! A very memorable experience - needless to
say that I'll be flying Air Canada every chance I get in the future!
--
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 |  Michael E. Bullock                | Advanced Decision Systems      	|
 |  mbullock@ads.COM                  | Mountain View, CA		|
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