true, this, indeed! I logged 140+ hours (approx 50 flights) as Test Director on the #4 767-200, and more 707/727/727/747 test flights than I can count as an analysis engineer where I had to stand in the cockpit for anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to copy gauge readings

there were also two commercial trips where I chatted with the flight crew during boarding (of course mentioning that I worked for Boeing Flight Test at the time) and was invited to join them (MEX-ACA on a Mexicana 727-200 -- I was actually able to stumble through most of the conversation in what I remembered of my four years of high-school Spanish! -- and MEX-IAH on a Pan Am L-1011-500)