Tristar
Pattern Altitude
Most Introductory flights are for customers that are interested in flying but not sure if they would like to persue it, however this week I was asked if I would like the opportunity to take a different kind of intro flight. Today I had my first completely blind passenger and his neighbor with the support of his friends and family watching. He naturally needed a little help getting into and out of the airplane but I showed him by feel how to move the seats, how to unlock the doors, and also how to unbuckle seat belts. When we were ready to go, I let him help start the airplane with the mixture while I got the key and walked him through everything we were doing and where we were going next. After I heard the "Cessna 082 cleared for takeoff" we were on the roll. I told him to follow gently on the controls. In no time, we were off the ground. I put the airplane in a trimmed comfortable climb and gave the controls to him. "Okay Chris, its all you." He had great questions, immediately he wanted to know how fast we were going, what rate of climb, and what pitch attitude we were at. I don't think he could help but smile.
We decided to take a nice little scenic tour to Branched Oak Lake. We had some little puffy clouds above us and every time we would fly underneith them, the airplane would bounce around similar to going over a rocky road. This was great because all he could sense were feelings on his body, so I explained that puffy clouds were generaly a sign of unstable air. Every now and then in a turn I would ask him, "so do you feel like your straight and level or in a turn?" He would say, "well it feels like I'm sorta level, maybe still turning." Yep, as a matter of fact, we're in about a ten degree bank to the left. So it was interesting to see what he felt all the time when with my real students, I have to trick by telling them to close their eyes.
Just before we headed back, I decided to let him fly around the lake by himself without me helping (much). He held onto the controls as I let go and with gentle voice commands I would ask him to turn left....stop....pull up...stop...turn right a little...stop...little more...stop...etc. And little by little we got around the entire lake without him knowing it. I said, "congrats, you flew around the entire lake without me touching a thing." He said, "wow, now I have a story to tell."
We headed back to the airport and landed. I even let him try taxiing, we have a very large ramp. He did well and is an excellent listener. We shut down and got out. The gentleman that had ridden along in the back said, "you two make a great team." Chris said; "Well, I had a great instructor!"
It was deffinitly different but an excellent learning experience for both of us. I gave Chris a souvenier logbook with couple pages in it and signed it as his first instructional flight. I couldn't help smiling when they said, "thank you for being so kind to us, we had a great time and hope to do it again sometime!"
We decided to take a nice little scenic tour to Branched Oak Lake. We had some little puffy clouds above us and every time we would fly underneith them, the airplane would bounce around similar to going over a rocky road. This was great because all he could sense were feelings on his body, so I explained that puffy clouds were generaly a sign of unstable air. Every now and then in a turn I would ask him, "so do you feel like your straight and level or in a turn?" He would say, "well it feels like I'm sorta level, maybe still turning." Yep, as a matter of fact, we're in about a ten degree bank to the left. So it was interesting to see what he felt all the time when with my real students, I have to trick by telling them to close their eyes.
Just before we headed back, I decided to let him fly around the lake by himself without me helping (much). He held onto the controls as I let go and with gentle voice commands I would ask him to turn left....stop....pull up...stop...turn right a little...stop...little more...stop...etc. And little by little we got around the entire lake without him knowing it. I said, "congrats, you flew around the entire lake without me touching a thing." He said, "wow, now I have a story to tell."
We headed back to the airport and landed. I even let him try taxiing, we have a very large ramp. He did well and is an excellent listener. We shut down and got out. The gentleman that had ridden along in the back said, "you two make a great team." Chris said; "Well, I had a great instructor!"
It was deffinitly different but an excellent learning experience for both of us. I gave Chris a souvenier logbook with couple pages in it and signed it as his first instructional flight. I couldn't help smiling when they said, "thank you for being so kind to us, we had a great time and hope to do it again sometime!"
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