Many of my regular readers will know that I work in the aviation industry and have done so for many years. As part of that vocation I’ve been fortunate enough to ride ‘up front’ with the engine drivers on many occasions. 9/11 of course changed the way aviation works and that opportunity for the man in the street to visit cockpits and get a flavour for the work, has pretty much vanished. I realise I’m incredibly fortunate in that I still get the opportunity to see life at the sharp end from time to time, and its really difficult to explain what its like to see out of the big windows instead of the port holes in ‘steerage’.
This short video above is one of those rare opportunities to see what its like up front, with superb imagery and editing, this is two and a half minutes of your life that’s worth wasting!
1080 HD on, Sound on, lights off, … Go!
Albion Yard 
Great! As we wizz back and forth, care of Mr. O’leary, from Lourdes to Stansted we get great views of the sunrise over the Pyrenees which is worth the price of the ticket alone. We were once held in a stack over London and flew back and forth over the river Thames and were treated to London by night with many oohs! and wows! even form the poor seats.
I can recall one trip up front to Geneva and you could see the alps almost from Paris as the day was so clear, real treasured memory that one!
Stunning photography, I was lucky enough to have 10 minutes on “the footplate” of a 747 over Dubai many years ago. Brings home very vividly how small we are on this planet, more so than from the cabin window
Thoughts of going for your PPL? Mine is in abeyance, pending further funds, but you get to ride up front *and* control the regulator 🙂
Nope whilst I’ve been flying aircraft for a good few years I’m not a pilot! All my hours have been very closely and legally supervised by an adult :0)
I do have a difficult time driving past the local gliding club without stopping, I’m not always successful !
I love your railway blog, but this is thrilling!
Before 9/11, I had the pleasure of flight deck rides across the more boring parts of the North Atlantic, including 747, 767, and 777. The pilots, mostly BA, seemed glad enough of company, and it certainly was more interesting than back in tourist class!
I was commuting from Boston to Toronto for a while and met an Air Canada pilot who frequently did the run. He gave me his business card and told me to ask the cabin crew if he were pilot in command, promising me a jump seat ride fro YYZ to BOS. All this about two weeks before 9/11, alas.
But I will always have the memory of sunrise off the coast of Ireland, as viewed from the cockpit, and your video has brought it back. Thank you.
Hi Marshall, thanks for your comments.The video isn’t mine, but belongs to David a pilot who has a blog here http://thenightflier.weebly.com/blog.html its in italian but theres a translator tab in the blog, which gets you ‘google speak’, but close enought to work the translation to an enjoyable read.
This takes dash cam videos to new heights (pun intended).Thanks for sharing with us.
Andy
You’re welcome