He told me he could fly a 737...
I was waiting for my flight in the airport. I asked a man the time. He told me the time and that he was the pilot. So we began talking, and I asked if I could see the cockpit while we were airborn.
I then noticed he was reading some kind of instruction manual with diagrams of airplanes and arrows pointing up and down. It looked exaclty like what I imagine a "how to fly" book would look.
After I had enjoyed(?) the inflight meal, and saw the Panama Canal from way above, I asked the flight attendant if I could see the captain, and she said "no". Then I told her I had spoken to the captain at the airport and she said "yes".
I've never been in the cockpit of a passenger jet before. Flying through the clouds at two hundred something knotts over Costa Rica is a pretty damn cool sight.
The pilot then picked up some kind of card with numbered instructions on it; things like, turn on seatbelt lights, etc... Things that you'd think they'd have memorized by now. I'm sure that it is standard procedure, but it seemed he was reading it like he never had read one before.
I guess, though, he knew what he was doing, as we landed safely, and he gave me a salute and thumbs up from the cockpit as I walked across the tarmack to the airport.
More from dave here