It was kinda funny in a way. You could tell the FlyerTalkers and more generally the SEs, easily distinguished from the media, AC people, government, TAs, manufacturer reps, etc. They were the ones that said screw the cockpit, take me to the seats. I'll let the other FTers announce themselves as they see fit.

But let's just say we travelled in packs, and made our presence known wherever we went. Not intentionally of course, but when you see a bunch stopping for nothing and heading directly for the exit row, well, you get the picture.

So here's how the day went. The night went quite aways too, for some of us, but that's a whole different story. And thread.

The day begins at the Hilton Hotel at the airport. We get the 8:45am shuttle from the hotel to the AC facility. The bus driver had no idea where we were going, and made one U-turn after another. We still arrived in plenty of time. We signed in, and headed to the meet and greet area, had some muffins, juice and coffee, and settled in.

After a brief intro by one of ACs communications people, RM stepped up and spoke briefly about the new airplanes. We also had a minute of silence, given the date. Nothing that you haven't already read in this month's enRoute or on-line here.

We were broken into 4 teams, A through D, and spent 20-30 minutes with each of the for manufacturers. (They were Boeing 717, Airbus 318, Embrarer 170 and related models, and Bombardier CRJ 200, 500, 700, and 900.) There was a short muffin and juice break between each session. I was the only FTer (that I knew of anyway) in "Team C". All the rest were in "Team A."

After these sessions came lunch, consisting of a new "J class" meal, served complete with, er, by, Flight Attendants. Pretty decent in all. One of the FTers on board had some comments about the breakfast service, and in no time the executive chef in charge of developing the meals was there, taking notes and handing out cards. He was genuinely interested in comments from "real" end-users.

After that it was out to the tarmac for show-and-tell. There were, in approximate order, an A319 (AC), A318 (Frontier), Embrarer 170 (sweeeeeeeeet, but still an "experimental" unit), B717 (Air Tran), CRJ 900 (Star), 700 (Star), 500 (AC), and finally a CRJ 200 (United.)

We just walked past the Airbus equipment, saying, "yep, looks like an Airbus." We did go back to the 318 for a brief visit however.

Our first visit was to the Embrarer, which I was prepared to write off without even seeing. But as I discussed elsewhere, we were mightily impressed.

From there (after the short stop on the 318) it was off to the CRJ 900. With business class, and a huge lavatory aft, it looked like it had potential. But we were told to evaluate the 700.

We walked onto the 700, and in very short order walked off. Every bit as bad as the current 200s, only bigger, so more misery.

All during this point we had a Global TV crew following us around, asking questions, filming us, asking us to reset the seat and re-recline it, so this time they get a better angle, etc. There's some more humour here, but I'll let the guilty party describe it, should they come forward.

At that point, it was time to head to our assigned planes for demo flights. I was to be on the A319 (yes, 319, subbing in for the 318) and the B717. I wanted to bail on the A319 and take the ERJ-170 instead. That seemed to be no problem. Only the B717 flight was so long, by the time we got back the ERJ had already left on its second and final trip. C'est la vie.

It was an interesting flight, particularly the take off. Ever seen those posters of the fighter jet going straight up. Well this was exactly the same, only faster. Almost. Everyone was stunned by the agressiveness of the take off, the attack angle, and the acceleration. 'Course with only 50 pax, no luggage or catering, and a small amount of fuel, it shouldn't have been that big a surprise. But it was.

Throughout the day we hobnobbed with various and sundry AC executives and staff. Lot's of interesting info changed hands, but for the most part nothing of significance. I was able to make one contact though that I am quite pleased about. I hope to be able to relay some concerns I have about AC, and also hope that my contact will be able to do something about them.

The evening was even better, as we were invited to visit several different AC operations (FTers only) and meet a gazillion employees. To a person, they were wonderful, with a couple of them even taking us out to dinner. (Shwartz's, as recommended right here in the AC forum, was the venue, and it was fantastic.) But like I said, that's a story for another thread.

In the meantime, I'll be posting my specific observations here, as time permits. Hopefully the others will be able to come forward and add their comments. For reasons that I can't reveal, they may or may not be able to. Reasons which are also quite funny.

In the meantime, start demolishing the CRJs, send the Boeings and Airbuses home, and start learning Spanish.


[This message has been edited by Ken hAAmer (edited 09-12-2003).]