Dad Finally Flew with Me for First Time...

DrewG

DrewG

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Nov 26, 2013
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Stillwater, OK
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DrewG
I know there's plenty of dislike on here for posting of flights on YouTube and all, but I wanted to share this personally special moment with my fellow aviators on here.

My dad finally was able to fly with me for some breakfast recently and it meant the world to me - and I passed the 100 hour mark on this day, as well! He didn't want to take the controls at all but really enjoyed everything...including the breakfast!

I'm sure there's plenty to criticize and/or improve upon with regard to technique/communications/whatnot in the videos, and that's OK. I'm always open to that, have some relatively thick skin and only seek to improve. Either way - I had to share the moment(s), even if videos are a bit on the long side!

 
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:thumbsup:

Glad you were able to take your Dad up! Looks like y'all had a good day and nice time together.
 
acluffpoa said:
Great that you can share your flying with your Dad. I think the only thing I’d critique is that you even had the least bit of hesitation to post the video. The critique is on the rest of us, not you.
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eman1200 said:
there is?

first flight with family is pretty sweet.
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I seem to recall some seeing some guff directed to folks with regard to posting videos in the past - but might have just been the typical vocal minority of PoA curmudgeons! Thanks for the compliments - definitely special!
 
Awesome..!!!!

My dad passed away 10 weeks after I got my first flying job, and I never got to take him up. Treasure the time in the air together while you can.
 
DrewG said:
I seem to recall some seeing some guff directed to folks with regard to posting videos in the past - but might have just been the typical vocal minority of PoA curmudgeons! Thanks for the compliments - definitely special!
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Never heard that. “Pics or it didn’t happen” is what you hear. Speaking of which , you have no proof you had breakfast like you said you did!! And if you took some and post them and you didn’t have bacon you better photoshop some in. Hell hath no fury like a POA curmudgeon without bacon.
 
Zeldman said:
Awesome..!!!!

My dad passed away 10 weeks after I got my first flying job, and I never got to take him up. Treasure the time in the air together while you can.
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Amen to treasuring it. Took my dad a while to do it and hoping my mom joins the fray soon - but, I certainly don't force the issue. It's supposed to be fun, not pressure-filled!
 
luvflyin said:
Never heard that. “Pics or it didn’t happen” is what you hear. Speaking of which , you have no proof you had breakfast like you said you did!! And if you took some and post them and you didn’t have bacon you better photoshop some in. Hell hath no fury like a POA curmudgeon without bacon.
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I really should have taken pics of breakfast. It was my first time at this airport and it didn't disappoint. I've never had a bigger, more filling $7 breakfast plate that I can recall. It wasn't your typical thin, two slices of bacon and Wonder Bread toast, either. Four slices of THICK bacon and some seriously good homemade toast. If you ever are in OK and needing breakfast, Barnstormer's at KWDG (Enid, OK) is a must.
 
DrewG said:
I really should have taken pics of breakfast. It was my first time at this airport and it didn't disappoint. I've never had a bigger, more filling $7 breakfast plate that I can recall. It wasn't your typical thin, two slices of bacon and Wonder Bread toast, either. Four slices of THICK bacon and some seriously good homemade toast. If you ever are in OK and needing breakfast, Barnstormer's at KWDG (Enid, OK) is a must.
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Oh. That was better than a pic. That description will get me through my bowl of oatmeal.
 
Most of my family won't fly with me, unfortunately. I don't give them any grief about it though, to each his own. I do feel fortunate that at least my wife and son are both on board to take trips with me in the plane, so that's good enough. I'm glad you were able to share this experience with your dad.
 
I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to take both of my parents up before they died. I took my Mom up first as it turns out - but she spent most of the flight reading a book she was so bored. It wasn't a long flight. The highlight was the takeoff - "do you have to go so fast?" she quipped. ;)

Dad was 90 at the time and in declining health, but he enjoyed the flight thoroughly.

So glad you had the chance!
 
"You always this nervous?" :lol:

I haven't taken my dad up yet but I will as soon as I fly back to Jonesboro, AR. He wants to go, mom, not so much.
 
My dad hated flying. "If God wanted us to fly he'd have given us wings."

In 1966 or '67, he finally agreed to go flying with me on a short trip from Herlong Field (HEG) to Fernandina Beach (FHB) for lunch, and we took my 12 year old sister and her girlfriend (with her mother's permission, of course), also 12, along. We had to transition the old Jacksonville Imeson Airport (closed in 1968 when the new Jacksonville International opened; both had JAX as airport identifier) airspace. In response to the transition request, the controller said, "Transition approved. Maintain VFR at all times." Dad said, "What did he say?" So I told him the controller had just told me to watch out for other airplanes. He said, "That's a helluva G.. D... thing to say!"

After we landed at Fernandina Beach, Dad got out of the plane, knelt down, and kissed the ground. Both the girls giggled. We had a nice lunch, and Dad seemed to enjoy the flight back to Herlong.

It was Dad's way of letting me know he had confidence in me as a pilot, and it meant a lot to me that he overcame his fear of flying for that one lunch trip to show it.
 
Great that you were able to take your dad up!

I remember taking my parents up when I first got my PPL...neither had ever been in any kind of plane before. I remember glacing over at my dad and seeing an expression that seemed to say "just a little bit longer & we'll be back on the ground"

It's a testament to how much they loved me for them to have put aside their fears & go up...I miss them
 
My twin brother and I both got our PPLs at age 17 and have flown Mom and Dad quite a bit over the years. Even occasionally now, but they are not as interested these days.

EdFred said:
I don't remember the first time I flew with my mom or my dad. But I was my Dad's CFI, so I probably got ya all beat on brags. :D
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That would be fun, teaching your Dad. I got my CFI at 21 and my Dad, whose was in his late 40's then, expressed an interest in lessons. We were both busy, and never got started on that. My brother and I agreed it was probably for the best. He was (he is still around, but has calmed down a lot) an Alaska homesteader, pioneer and just a crazy dude. "Never turn back/never give up" type of guy. As kids, we had some very interesting boating and hunting adventures with Dad. I worried that if he were to get a pilot's license, that he might push his luck in his flying also...
 
My dad went up with me when I was 17 years old and had no idea at all what I was doing. 37 years later and he still loves to go up with me. In fact, for this past father's day I gave him a framed picture of both of us posing in front of a 172 before a flight down to College Station TX back when I was 18 and a picture we just took together in front of my airplane 37 years later before a flight somewhere. My wife framed them both in the same frame.

My dad has always been a great supporter and that is where I got my love of flying and anything mechanical from. If it has an engine, he and I are both interested in it.
 
The one thing I regret in flying is that I never got to fly with my dad. Glad you were able to do it.
 
Stan Cooper said:
It was Dad's way of letting me know he had confidence in me as a pilot, and it meant a lot to me that he overcame his fear of flying for that one lunch trip to show it.
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This is exactly how I felt. I know my dad is no huge fan of flying (in any capacity) and has had more than one friend of his spooked out of the air during their initial training and never went back up. It was an incredible gesture on his part to fly with me. I can only hope he'd love to do it again!
 
I like how you have your Stratux mounted on the back window. What did you use?
 
Stan Cooper said:
My dad hated flying. "If God wanted us to drive he'd have given us wheels."
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FTFY!

I always said, if he didn’t want us to fly, he wouldn’t have given man the resources to do so.
 
BrianNC said:
I like how you have your Stratux mounted on the back window. What did you use?
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I purchased a FlightBox from Open Flight Solutions. The mount was made for another Stratux box, so it's not ideal; the FlightBox doesn't really fit it and, in effect, faces the "wrong" way in order to mount and have the mount clips grab the edges of it.

Aside from my self-inflicted mounting woes, the FlightBox is a solid unit. I'm glad I didn't bother trying to purchase and piece a Stratux unit together myself, even though it seems easy enough. I'm only technically inclined to a degree, so this makes it much easier with the firmware updating and all from the companion app.
 
DrewG said:
I purchased a FlightBox from Open Flight Solutions. The mount was made for another Stratux box, so it's not ideal; the FlightBox doesn't really fit it and, in effect, faces the "wrong" way in order to mount and have the mount clips grab the edges of it.

Aside from my self-inflicted mounting woes, the FlightBox is a solid unit. I'm glad I didn't bother trying to purchase and piece a Stratux unit together myself, even though it seems easy enough. I'm only technically inclined to a degree, so this makes it much easier with the firmware updating and all from the companion app.
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Yeah, I built my own. It was pretty easy really.
 
Dad was my first family passenger. A special occasion.
 
Good job,would have liked to have been able to take my Dad up.enjoy your flights together.
 
Took my dad up for the first time yesterday. No particular reason why it took so long, ut it did. I have over 500 hours and my first plane was one that I purchased a quarter share of from him. We had fun, should have done it sooner and hope to do it again soon.

Jim
 
I miss taking my dad up. He loved flying and airplanes.

Our last trip anywhere with him was to GJT to their airshow to see the Blues, and we got to meet Roger Buis completely unplanned over breakfast, not long before he retired his Otto show in his helicopter.

Got there the evening before, watched the Blues do a little practice, tweaked the settings in the scanner for listening to the Air Boss and the Blues, and all set for the show the next day.

Show was great, then we watched the night airshow sitting on the back bumper of his car with a cooler full of cheap beer listening to the scanner again.

Wouldn’t have ever guessed that would have turned into such a great weekend of memories.

Glad to see folks doing it while they can.

Have flown my grandmother, my sister, and dad out of my immediate family.

And of course, Karen has been crazy enough to fly with me since literally the day after my Private ticket was punched.

Stuff I’d like to do still... fly Karen in a multi, she’d like that... and get my other sister up, one or both stepdads (yeah, there’s two of those now haha...), and maybe an aunt who’s shown interest. Mom will probably never ever go. Ha. Might get her to do a once around the patch and done... should ask her if she wants to.

Cousins and their kids and nephews and nieces are always welcome too, but they’re all scattered to the winds... and some of the cousins are close enough to a second cousin who owns his own Maule in Texas that he’s flown a number of folks from that part of the clan. I think his dad also flew before he passed away.

But anyway... dad. He flew a number of times. Was a lot of fun when we could work it out to go. We did a flight that was all ham radio stuff once during the Colorado Ham Radio 14er Event, an annual thing where people hike up 14,000’ peaks and operate from up there. Loaded up a bunch of radio gear and went.

We just went up in the airplane and talked to all of them, and even some folks who “braved the heights” of Mt. Sunflower in KS trying to talk to the people on the 14ers. :)
 
denverpilot said:
But anyway... dad. He flew a number of times. Was a lot of fun when we could work it out to go. We did a flight that was all ham radio stuff once during the Colorado Ham Radio 14er Event, an annual thing where people hike up 14,000’ peaks and operate from up there. Loaded up a bunch of radio gear and went.

We just went up in the airplane and talked to all of them, and even some folks who “braved the heights” of Mt. Sunflower in KS trying to talk to the people on the 14ers. :)
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That's sweet, Nate. :thumbsup:

I'd never heard of the 14er event. Then I guess I wouldn't, since I lived all of my life a long way from the Rockies. My Dad was always big on Field Day events though. A few times SEMARA would organize an event at the athletic field a mile or so from my condo and he would always set up there, though it was mainly 2 meter activity. But he was a huge DXer in his day and his QSL card collection was impressive. Unfortunately it was destroyed in a flood that ruined their basement back in 2011. Quite a loss. I was only a ham (novice class) for one year as a kid and never really caught the bug, but I wish I had his cards as a memento.
 
104 knots - 119.681 mph. You nailed it!
 
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