First Passenger

[Tantalum]

Also, along the way, I read this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Zone-Second-How-Pilots/dp/0071798404

This is where I got a lot of my facts and information regarding aviation incidents. I'd highly recommend it to anyone that flies GA.

Thanks, I'll check the book out, title sounds familiar.. I bet you are right, seeing how careful you are probably gave her a sense of confidence. I do the same anytime people ask about local GA planes.. if given a rational explanation about why it went down (which is almost always because of a dumb pilot error) that tends to help people feel safer

I might the only pilot who has never taken up family... my parents and sibling live too far away, and my husband isn't interested (he's a big fan of gravity).

That's too bad.. are they too far away for a visit on a cross country flight?

 

[OkieFlyer]

My lovely wife was my first passenger on my first flight as a bona fide private pilot. A few days after my checkride, took the wife to Enrique's in Ponca City, OK for a $387 enchilada. Round trip was about 3 hrs with a night landing on the way home. Fun stuff.

 

[AU_James]

Hard to remember back to 2 months ago.... lol. But my then fiancé and now wife was my first passenger and somehow the weather became perfect and I remembered how to land smoothly and she was hooked. Took her for an actual cross country to a lake she grew up visiting a couple weeks later and now she wants to know when we're buying a plane. I haven't scared her enough yet, apparently!

 

[Tantalum]

and now she wants to know when we're buying a plane

...that's great! is it something you've started to seriously consider? It's an "investment" but the utility of a plane is incredible. Even a "slow" 172 will still get you to some very cool places in relatively short time... Google Maps is putting Palm Springs about 3.5 hrs from me drive time... Foreflight says the 172 will be there in 49 minutes, and that's taking some fairly large detours to avoid mountain peaks into account and a headwind

 

[Tantalum]

A few days after my checkride, took the wife to Enrique's in Ponca City, OK for a $387 enchilada

funny, I think non pilots don't get the whole "$100 hamburger" thing. When I first started flying and would take friends we would land at an airport and they always seemed puzzled by the notion of just eating a greasy burger there... why we were not heading into town to explore

 

[Lachlan]

I don't know about you guys, but my first passenger as PIC was the examiner....

See 14 CFR 61.47.

He asked who your first passenger was AFTER getting your certificate, not WHILE you were getting it.

 

[AU_James]

is it something you've started to seriously consider?

Actually, yes, I have started. I'm thinking of sticking with something reliable, "slow," and affordable to start out with while it's just me and my wife. A piper Cherokee/archer 180 or the likes. I don't mind if I have to stop for gas to go see my parents or something- it'll still shave 5 hours off the travel time each way! The wife is sold on the utility of the plane even without having my instrument rating, and I'm not going to argue with her!

 

[Tantalum]

The utility is what my wife finds appealing as well, and the pretty scenery, but mainly the utility