First flight after getting your PPL...?

fiveoboy01

fiveoboy01

Pattern Altitude
Joined
Apr 21, 2013
Messages
2,322
Location
Madison, WI
Display Name
Display name:
Dirty B
What did you do?

Today, 12 days after my checkride, I went up for a spin for a bit over an hour. It felt sort of weird, but I enjoyed myself. It was sunny and clear but very cold, and the 172 leapt off the ground like a scared cat between the low density altitude and the empty right seat. I didn't like the crosswinds at the two nearest airports as they were beyond my current self-imposed limits, so I just bored holes in the sky for a while, which was still very fun. I never went farther than 20-25 miles from the airport and though I was with departure the entire time, I didn't get a single traffic advisory. Came back and the landing was a total greaser, 12 knots blowing right down the runway didn't hurt.

My brother was supposed to go along, and he did not, made some excuse about hunting... and I knew he was lying. Mom confirmed with me later, he is afraid to fly because I have low hours, and he's scared something will happen. At first I was mad about it but as I sat and thought about it, I realized that his fear comes from ignorance. But I don't know how to correct it other than just let him sit on the ground. Any advice there is appreciated. Dad is going up with me Wednesday, but he's got 300+ hours;) I think I just hijacked my own thread:lol:
 
I had to fly back to the home airport from the DPEs airport.

My next flight was to check out in the FBOs C-172, I had done all my training in the C-150.
 
I seem to recall some other thread here on PoA where a lot of people said they rarely have any passengers, over an extended period of time. it's a little discouraging but what can u do, I guess.

Hopefully ur bro comes around, takes a flight with u, enjoys it and becomes a regular.
 
I started taking short cross country flights, expanding them in length all the time. For some reason, a 200 mile trip didn't seem bad, but, a 1000 mile trip seemed daunting. I probably had 100 plus hours of cross country my first year. Good you put personnel limits on yourself. I think learning they don't want you to solo over 10 kts? On a cross country few weeks ago I landed and took off with winds 30 degrees off runway at 34 gusting to 41. The taxi was the worst part. Kinda non event. Seems like the more you fly the more you learn. Congrats on your achievement.
 
Other than flying home after the checkride, I took a week or two off. I had logged 25 hours the month I too my checkride and needed a break. Then I went and did some landings by myself, then took the family on a quick ride.
 
5 days after my check ride, I took my boyfriend on the Hudson River VFR Corridor for my first flight. He controlled the cameras and radios (only when in the corridor), and I had a greaser landing! He edited a video of the 1.9 hour flight and the still pictures into this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFGsLjdiD3w It was a LOT of fun, but probably only something I could've done with another pilot in the right seat to help remind me of my altitude and look for traffic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFGsLjdiD3w
 
Took my wife up for a photo flight 5 days after passing my checkride. She had flown with me (and instructor) 3-4 times before so knew what to expect. Was quite bumpy at some parts, especially for her looking through the viewfinder, but what I learned to prevent motion sickness (talk, ask to look outside, open air vents, put hands on the yoke) worked like a charm. :)
 
On my way back from the DPE's field, I stopped at the field where I soloed, just to see the place again and bask in the freedom to land anywhere I wanted without needing a signoff. A few days later I did a tour of the Michigan Thumb in an older 172 without any GPS or usable nav equipment at all, just having fun sightseeing and navigating with pilotage alone. The next week I took a friend up to Mackinac Island on a day when the winds were way out of my comfort range... I learned a lot on that trip.
 
Aviatrix said:
5 days after my check ride, I took my boyfriend on the Hudson River VFR Corridor for my first flight. He controlled the cameras and radios (only when in the corridor), and I had a greaser landing! He edited a video of the 1.9 hour flight and the still pictures into this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFGsLjdiD3w It was a LOT of fun, but probably only something I could've done with another pilot in the right seat to help remind me of my altitude and look for traffic.
Click to expand...

Very nicely done! Great scenery and shots.
 
Flew my dad from Orange County (SNA) to Santa Paula (SZP) and Flabob (RIR).
 
Flew home from an FAA check ride,next day took a friend for 100 hamburg, week later got my complex check out.
 
The day after my check ride I had to go overseas for 7'weeks, first flight when I got back was with a CFI for a couple of hours a run through the usual stuff, stalls, steep turns, slow flight ect. Then back to the field and shot takeoff and landings for an hour.

Couple of days later my wife who had no previous experience of flying in a light aircraft nervously flew with me on a short x/c, now she joins me on almost every flight as we explore Florida, and even comes along if I'm only pounding around the local pattern doing some crosswind landing practice.
 
I WENT TO DISNEY WORLD!...well kinda...flew to the edge of the TFR for some pics the afternoon after my checkride...but not quite over as I was nervous about being over a TFR and under Orlando's Bravo...didn't wanna get busted for violating airspace during my first flight on the day I got my ticket!

Also took along a buddy who was a fellow student that had a checkride with the same DPE two days later to run through what I did on my checkride.

About two weeks, 10 more hours, and a HP endorsement later bought a plane back in Florida then flew it to California in 2 and a half days!...that was a blast!
 
Last edited:
Gave my CFI a ride home from the field where we met the DPE. Next flight was the following month with my wife.
 
fiveoboy01 said:
Care to elaborate with something substantive?
Click to expand...

Mostly joking. Of course who knows better then our brothers how good we are at operating machines?:D. How many people here would sit backseat(no controls) with a brand new private pilot? Not many, yet we expect the rest of the world to fly with the new pilots with the same inability to save themselves. :lol:
 
Got my PPL on 8/19/1976 at 35hrs (part 141)
8/20 took three friends up in a 172
8/21 flew a different 172 SNA/CRQ/SNA
8/22 gave my sister a ride in a C150
8/23 flew a different 150 to Catalina for lunch with a friend
8/25 different 150 SNA/LCL
Flew five different airplanes in the first six days I had my PPL. Bought a 1965 PA 28-180 on 10/02/1976
 
My original plan was for my first passenger to be the twenty-something girl that works for us, because she had never flown in an airplane. I liked the idea of two firsts in one flight.

My wife canceled that ticket and was the first passenger. I took the girl up a few days later.
 
First flight was two days after my checkride and coincidentaly 14 years to the day after my first solo (life is what happens while you're busy making other plans). My first passenger was a first timer, my wife. Asked her if she wanted to do a "normal takeoff" or a "fun takeoff" ...

 
Bill, would your brother crawl on the back of a motorcycle with you for a spin downtown and back? If not then you know what climbnsink means, your brother is smart. If he would be OK with the bike ride then he should be OK flying with you.
 
No he would not, because I would not let him LMAO.

That said, in the past 3 years I have put almost 20,000 miles on my bike and also done my fair share of this(yes this is me):

IMG_4071pp-M.jpg


In all that time, the bike does not have a single scratch from being down or dropped, either on the street or on the track.

I'm not bragging, but rather I think it speaks to my safety-mindedness. If it didn't look completely gay I'm sure he would be fine riding on the back of my bike.

Therefore, I'm miffed at his fear. He's never flown commercial either... and when I lived in Nevada, I couldn't get him to come visit, even if I paid his airfare... and his excuses were lame. I think he's flat-out scared of flying, period. And most of it is ignorance. He wouldn't fly with my dad either 6-7 years ago. Then again neither would I, as I was also ignorant.

I think it can be hard to go up with someone if you have a fear and you're not the one in control, so to a point I understand his feelings. But it also frustrates me, because I consider myself safe and extremely conservative.
 
Well, gee.

I passed my ride in the 152, checked out in the 172, and loaded up the wife and kids, took a tour of the local area, all before lunch.

I was dead tired after that and slept very well...
 
I received my PPL on 16 Jun 2012, and every flight since then I have made solo, with the exception of a one hour annual club checkout when I switched to flying the club's Archer instead of a 172.
 
I took my mom flying for my first flight after my PPL. Just went to the local practice area, still beutiful!

I started taking XC's about a month after getting my PPL. Now that's almost all I fly, 2 years later.

Don't worry about your brother not wanting to go with you. I have found that flying is not for everyone and I never take it personally if people decline. Most people love flying once they are up there but I can take a lot for them to get over their fear. Plus, flying alone is a serene experience and never gets old!
 
fiveoboy01 said:
I think it can be hard to go up with someone if you have a fear and you're not the one in control, so to a point I understand his feelings. But it also frustrates me, because I consider myself safe and extremely conservative.
Click to expand...
There's no reason for you to be frustrated at this. You know in your head that it has nothing whatsoever to do with you or with how safe you are, or even with how safe he thinks you are. It's 100% his issue and while you might overcome it some day, there's no reason to let it bother you in the mean time.

Personal fears can be difficult, even completely debilitating. Way off topic, but in college I had a friend that was grossly afraid of spiders of any variety. As a prank, another friend bought a rubber spider from a gumball machine -- something whose colors made it clear that the thing could not possibly be real, and he placed it on the window of the phobic's car just above the door handle. The phobic could do nothing to get rid of it and get in his car, fear overtook him that much. When someone else tried to make it even more clear that the spider was fake -- by pulling it off and stretching it, the phobic was still out of personal control. This phobic was perfectly normal in all other aspects of life.
 
my first flight was a few days after i passed my checkride. i took a few friends over to bridgeport for a quick flight and some food
 
I passed my check ride on a Saturday and, like many others, my first flight was returning home (Joplin, Mo to Harrison, Ar). The following day, I took my lovely bride to Sunday brunch at Gaston's.
 
As soon as I got home from my PPL checkride in 1976, my best friend was calling me. "Well, did you pass? Can we fly tomorrow?" My friend, nicknamed Mango, was 3rd or 4th generation Floridian and his family had one of the few hunting cabins still extant in the Everglades Nat'l Park. I had gone out there a couple times with him by airboat and he had his heart set on overflying it just to see it from the air.

So my first flight as a newly minted PPL was to head off to the 'Glades with my friend in a Cessna 150.

Mango had never flown in a small plane before and had no idea of what to expect. Not long after take-off, I could see that he was in some distress. "Want to turn back?", I asked. "No", he replied through clenched teeth, "I want to see the cabin." With his help and basic pilotage, I located the cabin in the middle of the Everglades. After passing over it once, Mango said that was good enough and let's go back now, please. I don't recall if he needed to make a beeline for the toilet once we got back to the FBO.
 
some people have an irrational fear of flying, especially small planes. when they hear "new pilot" and "small airplane", a dozen alarms go off in their head. You don't want one of these people in the plane with you anyway. Get some hours under your belt and enjoy yourself. At some point, your brother will come around.
 
Well, if he's never flown AT ALL, not really surprised that he might not want his maiden voyage with a brand-new pilot.

I have a friend whose boyfriend told her not to go up with me, because I was low-hour. She ignored him and had a great time. It all depends on the PAX.
 
He has flown in small planes before. Every year 6P3 has a pancake breakfast fly-in, and he buys a ride for himself and his son for $25, and enjoys it.

In any case, I didn't lose sleep over it last night :D
 
ClimbnSink said:
Your brother is smart.
Click to expand...

+1

What makes you think there is something wrong with someone that does not want to fly with a n00b pilot? He is smart to wait until you have made a whole bunch of mistakes for the first and, hopefully last, time.
 
Flew home from DPE's airport. Then two days later took my wife up for a scenic tour of the area for about an hour.

<-- She took the photo that my profile pic comes from on that flight.
 
My first flight post-checkride was a quick sightseeing flight over a local lake to celebrate passing, followed a week later by taking up my father as my first passenger for an hour over Red Deer (Alberta) for his first flight in a light airplane.
 
One week after my checkride, I took my spouse up. Now she has motion sickness issues anyway, whether in a car, boat or plane, so I was pretty impressed that she wanted to give it a try. I was a nervous wreck, because I think it's an awesome responsibility to carry passengers, but she seemed calm as could be about my piloting abilities.

She wanted to take Dramamine before the flight, but I persuaded her not to, knowing that the stuff just knocks her out. Besides, it was only about a 10-minute flight that we planned, from Northampton to Turners Falls, Mass., for lunch, and the weather information indicated it would probably be a smooth flight. Well, halfway into the flight, there was a lot more chop than I had expected and she was ripping open the Dramamine and not looking too well. But she's a good sport, and has said she's ready to try again.

As for people being afraid to fly with new pilots, I can completely understand, and I would never hold it against anyone if they said they didn't want to fly with me. I think most people have a fear of flying anyway, and a new pilot and a small plane only add to that fear. A former flight instructor, however, once said that there's no safer pilot than a new pilot, because complacency hasn't set in yet. I'm not sure I completely agree with that, but it's an interesting thought.
 
fiveoboy01 said:
Therefore, I'm miffed at his fear. He's never flown commercial either... and when I lived in Nevada, I couldn't get him to come visit, even if I paid his airfare... and his excuses were lame. I think he's flat-out scared of flying, period. And most of it is ignorance. He wouldn't fly with my dad either 6-7 years ago. Then again neither would I, as I was also ignorant.
Click to expand...

My sister wouldn't fly. I used to give her a hard time by "inviting" her every time I was flying locally to another field to refuel. One day she said "yes" and thought she for sure would no show. She arrived. I showed her a complete pre-flight, gave her the pax brief and told her we could land anytime she wanted. As soon as we left the pattern she was fine. i told her to bring her camera, and we took pictures of her house. At that point I said," lets head back" and she replied she wasn't ready, so we went over to the Class C airport for a landing. She has been flying commercial now as well, but I reminded her to avoid the afternoon (TB) flights.

fiveoboy01 said:
He has flown in small planes before. Every year 6P3 has a pancake breakfast fly-in, and he buys a ride for himself and his son for $25, and enjoys it.
Click to expand...

OK, now this makes no sense ....
 
The motion sickness thing can be really different than on a 737.

A front-seat passenger is sitting in the best place for that, and eyes outside the aircraft helps a lot.

My dad gets some really nasty sea/car sickness (really strange for a guy who did 25 years in the USCG), but when I took him in standard afternoon turbulence (along with the warning -- see the puffy clouds over the hills -- that's your teeth rattling). After an hour of that, he said it was fine and hopped out of the plane looking ready for more...go figure. It was standard summer afternoon light turbulence, but rather definitely of the get-your-attention type.

My wife, on the other hand, gets a little queasy on occasion due to a habit of looking down at her feet when it gets bumpy. She's slowly training to look where the airplane is going.

Knock on aluminum -- I've never had a passenger hork. Not even my wife going over Tioga Pass in (brief) moderate.
 
alfadog said:
+1

What makes you think there is something wrong with someone that does not want to fly with a n00b pilot? He is smart to wait until you have made a whole bunch of mistakes for the first and, hopefully last, time.
Click to expand...

Plenty of pilots with thousands of hours kill themselves(and helpless passengers) too.

I don't think there's anything wrong with him, I just think he's ignorant about what's involved with PPL training.

By your logic, nobody should carry passengers until they have 200 hours. And to me, that logic is faulty.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top