Originally Posted by Mats
Although the airlines would never allow it, I've always wanted to try my hand at putting on the vest or attempting to open an exit. Although I fly all the time and pay close attention to safety instructions, I'm sure that I would botch such procedures.
My guess is that they'd let us try on the demo vests if we asked nicely, the FAs were in the right mindset, and the flight load were fairly light. Thanks for the idea; maybe I'll try it on an empty flight later this year.
I've love to open an exit too. If I lived near one of the (Boeing) manufacturing sites I'd work pretty hard to be on the list of volunteers for practice evacuations.