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rt4388

Pre-takeoff checklist
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rt4388
I have finally scheduled my PPL Check Ride for November 14! When I started, my grandfather was super excited so I promised him that he could be my first passenger! I'm not sure who's more excited about him being my first passenger out of the two of us. Anyways, he's driving up to Athens the weekend I'm getting my license so that I can follow through with my promise. He's bringing my grandmother along and I'll take them both flying.
First, thanks everyone for all the help the past few months. Whether you directly answered a question of mine, answered someone else's question, or just shared a flying story of yours, you helped me and plenty of other student pilots along the way.
Second, any advice for me taking passengers for the first time? Or any advice for taking elderly passengers? Thanks so much!
 
Elderly passengers is entirely a function of their mobility.

One guy I know in his 80s would be no problem at all, in any sense. Some others in their 60s aren't so easy.

However, I think it's not the greatest idea to add to your pressure during the check ride. You will play enough head games with yourself without people traveling to be there on that day.

Don't count on any fun flying the day of your check ride. You will be wiped out.
 
Relax,enjoy the joy they are experiencing.
 
Only advice I have to give is make sure you have a sick sack along with you. You never know when someone is going to get motion sick and obviously, that would ruin the trip.

Fly the plane as if you were alone and talk to them about what you are doing. I verbalize everything I'm doing( within reason) and announce my checklists. I've found passengers are less nervous knowing what is going on then sitting there confused. Just this past trip,my dad, who flew with me once before asked- "what's that red flashing light?" I said, "that one is the transponder. It lets the ATC see us on Radar." He then said, "ok sounds good." I share this because these are the thing s we don't think to explain but it's on the passengers mind because red flashing light usually means something is wrong.

Best advice I can give is bring a camera and enjoy the memories!
 
MAKG1 said:
Elderly passengers is entirely a function of their mobility.

One guy I know in his 80s would be no problem at all, in any sense. Some others in their 60s aren't so easy.

However, I think it's not the greatest idea to add to your pressure during the check ride. You will play enough head games with yourself without people traveling to be there on that day.

Don't count on any fun flying the day of your check ride. You will be wiped out.
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You think I'll be too wiped out to go up for an hour flight or so afterward? I'm trying to avoid taking them up the next day because, being a young college kid, I would like to celebrate by going out the night I pass it with friends. And obviously, new pilot and going out the night before wouldn't be a good idea.
 
rt4388 said:
You think I'll be too wiped out to go up for an hour flight or so afterward? I'm trying to avoid taking them up the next day because, being a young college kid, I would like to celebrate by going out the night I pass it with friends. And obviously, new pilot and going out the night before wouldn't be a good idea.
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Well, you're not me, but I was sufficiently worthless after my check ride, that I considered getting a motel room to avoid driving home.

I wouldn't make any other plans for that day if I were you.
 
Heres one little tidbit: don't get so focused on you first passengers that you forget you have to pass the checkride first!
 
rt4388 said:
You think I'll be too wiped out to go up for an hour flight or so afterward? I'm trying to avoid taking them up the next day because, being a young college kid, I would like to celebrate by going out the night I pass it with friends. And obviously, new pilot and going out the night before wouldn't be a good idea.
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You will absolutely be too wiped out to go flying afterward. After my PPL check ride, I didn't even want to drive. My wife drove us over to a hamburger place for a late lunch (about 3pm) with my CFI. My day started at 8am with paperwork then about 9:00 - 12:30 for the oral. Then a preflight and a 2.1 hour flight wit the DPE. I was done for the day.
 
Also, have a contingency plan in case u have to cancel....weather, maintenance etc.....it happens quite a bit. That means u have to spend the ENTIRE WEEKEND wif yo grandparents!!!!
 
Tell them to please be quiet for the runup, takeoff, pattern and landing. Taxiing and away from the airport is plenty of time to talk. Give a chance for questions before taking the runway, too.

Once up and established on the climb, ask how he's doing and can he see?

Then just have fun!
 
Heck, all I wanted to do after my PPL checkride was keep flying. Everything was the same, but all felt different. Stress was gone, just flew the plane.
 
Hank S said:
Tell them to please be quiet for the runup, takeoff, pattern and landing. Taxiing and away from the airport is plenty of time to talk. Give a chance for questions before taking the runway, too.

Once up and established on the climb, ask how he's doing and can he see?

Then just have fun!
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It's not commonly taught, but you should observe sterile cockpit with the airplane moving on the ground as well. That's where most accidents and incidents occur. They tend to be relatively minor, but all those circled hotspots on the airport diagram are there for a reason.

I don't program the GPS while taxiing, nor do I let a right seater do it. Eyes outside.
 
Gentle turns. Please don't take your passengers up and do touch and go's or maneuvers. Go somewhere and have fun
 
jordane93 said:
Gentle turns. Please don't take your passengers up and do touch and go's or maneuvers. Go somewhere and have fun
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Unless they ask for it. But be very cautious about going there, and make sure you're not showing off.

I've had CAP cadets ask "to pull G's." If it's OK with everyone in the plane and the air is smooth (and traffic is clear), I'll demonstrate a steep turn to just below 60 deg bank. Once, to make the point that 2 G's really is quite a bit. Preceded by clearing turns so they can see how to do it right, and an explanation that the airframe is rated to 3.8 G's.

During a CAP transition lesson, I actually had a back seat first timer (adult) sleep through power on stalls in a 182! The instructor and I got a bit nervous that maybe she was hypoxic (despite our 4000 foot altitude), so we woke her up. She was fine.
 
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I know you're excited about doing this. Anybody would be!

You want to show off your pilot skills.
Remember your pilot thinking, too.

Plan this as you would any flight as PIC - including risk assessment using IMSAFE and PAVE...

Does it sound like a good idea now, weeks in advance? Go/No Go

How about on the day of? (OK, so you can't answer that today. But you might think through contingencies now, if you've decided to forge ahead.)
 
I think technically the DPE is your first passenger.
 
You will probably be exhausted after the practical. That's probably not the time to add something new to your flying.

Just a suggestion... take them up one at a time for the first ride. It will help them become accustomed to being in a small plane (if they haven't before) and seeing that first up-close landing if they haven't before.

When it is just you and one other passenger... the passenger will feel as comfortable as they believe you feel. It allows you to maintain the passenger's assurance just by being calm and collected... and you will feel more calm and collected if there is just one other in the plane with you to begin with.

Believe it or not... it will feel different having someone in the plane with you besides your CFI. Make it easier on yourself and your passengers until you get further into the "comfort zone". Just don't get too comfortable.
 
Is this normal to schedule 3 weeks out? Anyways... focus on passing your check ride first. It will be approximately 4-5 hours with the oral and ride combined. That combo should leave you feeling drained. Myself, I could barely stagger out to my car and drive home after that. The next day I took my wife up. As PIC, probably not the best idea to turn right around and put passengers under your command. Especially since it would be afternoon flying anyways (bumps and such). Better to get an early flight with your family the next day after you pass. Then party later? Sorry, I guess I'm questioning your prerogatives. Put simply, if you want to fly your grandparents I would highly suggest you do so the following day after your nerves have calmed. Then party that next night. Seems you are making priorities weeks in advance, without having any idea on the emotional state you will be on the day of your check ride.
 
Flying with non-pilot PAX can be a whole new experience with new tasks. Some people are so nervous before going up, other people are impatient during the preflight and treat it like a trip in the local city bus. Wait until you have more than one and they are talking each others' ears off over ATC -- get familiar with the ISO(lation) features of your intercom.

Remind people to bring sunglasses, camera, and a sip of water but encourage them not to down 2 liters before t/o and to use the restroom at the FBO. Plan for people to arrive late and everything to take a little longer than usual.

Remember to check in on your passengers throughout the flight. Having fun? Feeling good? Restroom? Hot? Cold? You don't want to wait until the end of the trip to learn that they were uncomfortable the entire time. "How far away from the airport are we?" might mean mother nature is calling... :(

And then you get to reconcile their imagination with reality:
"Which one of these things shows you the other airplanes in the sky?"
"Sure I'll tell you if I see another airplane but doesn't ATC make sure you don't crash into each other?"
"What do you mean no flight plan?"
"Where's the black box?"
"Just so you know, I already put my phone in airplane mode!"
"Are we cleared to fly over that?"
"You're not allowed to fly at night, though, right? How could you see?"

It can be really wonderful sometimes but other times you realize you're burning $150 to drive a person across the sky who just took 100 pictures of herself sitting in the seat and then fell asleep for the boring ride home.
 
Very cool! Congrats on your checkride! As others have said, don't force yourself afterwards to fly... you'll be too drained. You may want to, and that's cool, but don't force yourself.

Try booking the plane for the next day so you can do a fun flight. That way you'll have the pressure off and be able to take up your grandpa. BTW, those are the coolest times in your life... I wish I had the opportunity to take up my grandpa. He would have loved it!
 
Not to pile on but... Immediately after getting my PPL signed off I went to the FBO bathroom and threw up! I typically handle stress pretty well but I WANTED IT SO BADLY that I was wound up through the whole process. That said, the flight home was very relaxed.

Good luck on your checkride!


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If you have not loaded up your four-place to gross weight and close to aft CG with your CFI and his coworkers, I would highly recommend three takeoffs/landings. You will be very surprised. My first time was with my wife and two kids, which was poor ADM. Listen to these posts, we have made the mistakes for you.

OBTW...My wife graduated from UGA in 1997. We enjoyed our stay in Norcross/Winder after the military from 93-00. Miss those friendly southerners. Our only "big" flying trip was to GVL and Helen this year.
 
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Just saying, I wouldn't have them travel to go flying until you know the check ride is done and passed. You can have weather that will cause the flight to be cancelled. You might have a hiccup and not pass. And now you just had two elderly people travel all that way to go flying, and now they can't.
 
I could barely think straight after my checkride. I would definitely wait until the next day.

Just a tip, and I know this sounds ridiculous, but I have had at least 5 or 6 passengers stay real quiet during the flight, which I later found out was because they thought ATC could hear everything they said. Now I let new passengers know ahead of time that ATC can only hear me and only when I push the PTT button.
 
Echoing the exhaustedness the day of the checkride. I took up my family the next day, one at a time. Absolutely different than any flight before! Scared my sister with things that were normal to me (planes taxiing around us etc)
 
Thanks for all the feedback everyone. After hearing yall's input, I think I'm going to wait and take them up the next day. It seems like everyone was wiped out after their check ride, so I imagine my experience won't be much different. Maybe we'll get up early and go eat breakfast somewhere or I'll take them to lunch somewhere. So if you know any good places for food that is easily accessible from Athens, GA let me know.
To address the second part, I'll definitely have a contingency plan in case the weather turns on me. It's not too far of a drive so they can be flexible and make a go/no go decision pretty close to when I'll actually be taking the check ride.
But with all the "Make sure you pass" comments, I'm a bit worried now. I feel pretty confident about the check ride. I mean I know exactly what's going to be on it and what I'll have to perform to in order to get my license. If I can do the maneuvers today, I'm sure I'm only going to get better by the 14th. I only have 39 hours right now, so knowing that I'm going in with the minimums makes me a bit nervous, but I'm confident my instructor wouldn't send me out there if he thought I could potentially fail. Am I wrong for being confident that I'm going to pass? It just seems like there's going to be a curveball with all the comments about how I need to focus on actually getting the license first.
 
rt4388 said:
Am I wrong for being confident that I'm going to pass? It just seems like there's going to be a curveball with all the comments about how I need to focus on actually getting the license first.
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I don't think so. Overthinking it is the last thing you want to do! You know how to fly as demonstrated by your ability to get this far, you can do it :D

That being said, I was (of course) nervous the day of and had trouble sleeping the night before. Countered with a good breakfast and headed to the airport. During the checkride I felt overwhelmed and temporarily forgot how to intercept a VOR radial. The examiner asked if I was nervous and I said yes. He said we'd come back to it later, we did, I did it, and we moved on.

On the last short final of the ride, he yawned and reached behind my seat and flipped the window latch (C-172) and opened it quite suddenly. I landed the plane and got off the active and closed it again - he wanted to see how I reacted to sudden surprises in the pattern.

You may or may not get a curve ball but you obviously know how to fly already so just go out there and nail it! Then report back here :yesnod:
 
My tip is don't talk out loud to yourself.

I overshot a base to final turn with a newbie on board and unconsciously uttered out loud 'damnit!'

I though the poor guy was going to come out of his skin.
 
Yeah. I also would suggest waiting a day. Not to say you won't be up for flying, but I bet you'd have a more enjoyable time going up fresh the following day. I took my checkride in the morning July 3rd. Once I passed I was thrilled... Although very excited for the license, I just wasn't in the mood to go back up and fly. Then again I hammered out 15 hours the week and a half leading up to my checkride, so that may have been a contributing factor.

First things first... Focus on the checkride

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rt4388 said:
Thanks for all the feedback everyone. After hearing yall's input, I think I'm going to wait and take them up the next day. It seems like everyone was wiped out after their check ride, so I imagine my experience won't be much different. Maybe we'll get up early and go eat breakfast somewhere or I'll take them to lunch somewhere. So if you know any good places for food that is easily accessible from Athens, GA let me know.
To address the second part, I'll definitely have a contingency plan in case the weather turns on me. It's not too far of a drive so they can be flexible and make a go/no go decision pretty close to when I'll actually be taking the check ride.
But with all the "Make sure you pass" comments, I'm a bit worried now. I feel pretty confident about the check ride. I mean I know exactly what's going to be on it and what I'll have to perform to in order to get my license. If I can do the maneuvers today, I'm sure I'm only going to get better by the 14th. I only have 39 hours right now, so knowing that I'm going in with the minimums makes me a bit nervous, but I'm confident my instructor wouldn't send me out there if he thought I could potentially fail. Am I wrong for being confident that I'm going to pass? It just seems like there's going to be a curveball with all the comments about how I need to focus on actually getting the license first.
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Your instructor signed you off because he feels you can pass the check ride. Relax and have fun!
 
On your checkride, you just can't predict. Know your numbers, know your scenarios. Expect at least two "emergency" situations. Expect an "upset" situation. My DPE had me in a turning dive and said afterwards that he wished I had pulled the throttle sooner. My thinking is this: shoving the throttle in would have been an automatic fail - bad to think too quickly! Know your short field landing, and know your slip to landing.

Also, another stress factor is that you are flying with a stranger. I had more than one miscommunication with my DPE on my checkride. He wanted engine out, I thought he said engine fire. Of course, he gave me a chance to bring that back which was nice. That could have been an automatic fail based on the mood.
 
With regards to the checkride, best advice I ever got was, "the DPE already knows way more about flying than you may ever know." Seems like odd advice, but it's completely the best. What I took it to mean was, you don't need to prove you are an expert( anyone who claims to be an expert pilot is just boasting.) What you need to prove is you are safe and knowledgable. If you do that, you should be good to go.

Also, be prepared for the distraction portion of the flight test. It's actually meant to combine how you would handle the first passenger. Mine was classic, while in the pattern, the DPE said to me," hey that's my house down there. I think someone stole my car!" " I simply said, " wow that's not good." Making sure to continue to fly the plane the entire time. He said, " can we circle my house, I'd like to take a closer look?" I said, " sure." And made the proper request for a 360 in the pattern to ATC. We did, he said, " wait no that was not my house. Ok we can land now." I just handled it like I would in real life, no different because it's on the checkride. He must have liked it because I got the pass.

Good luck on the ride and let us know how it goes. Totally take your grandparents flying ASAP! Mine were all too old to go when I earned my wings and I regret not being able to fly with them.
 
Be sure to prepare a briefing that includes seatbelts, door/window emergency egress, barf bag, and noninterference with controls and radio communications.

Also, mention in advance that various instruments routinely beep and flash lights even when there is no problem. And when you make any change to your power settings, narrate what you're doing so the change in engine sound doesn't cause worry.

Have fun!
 
Agree on wait til the next day......bring Sic sacks for sure, and make it clear they aren't to touch the plane until you do the walk around. I made the mistake of leaving the psgr door open while I was doing the pre-flight check on a 172 years ago. Without warning one of the pax just walked over and jumped in the back seat of the empty bird........after the heart attack passed and visions of smashed tail feathers dissipated I made a mental note not to let that one happen again.............
 
And don't forget to report back to this thread after the check ride. Good luck.
 
On the day of my check ride, my boss, who is very supportive of me and also has a love for aviation(working on his ppl) came out after my check ride.. I told him that there was a chance we didn't fly if the check ride didn't go as planned. Well it did and we flew for 1.1 after a 1.5 hr practical and 2 hour oral. Wasn't tired at all, it just didn't feel real and to this day it hasn't "sunk in" that I have my ppl :dunno:
I was a little nervous(even more than solo) to bring my first passenger up..'it adds a whole new level of responsibility
 
TommyG said:
Just saying, I wouldn't have them travel to go flying until you know the check ride is done and passed. You can have weather that will cause the flight to be cancelled. You might have a hiccup and not pass. And now you just had two elderly people travel all that way to go flying, and now they can't.
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I agree. How will you feel if you don't pass (rare but it happens)? It will be embarrassing and awkward. I personally would not bring that upon myself.

Like others have said... the mental drain after the checkride will be huge. I remember my checkride (it was less than a month ago). It was only a 45 minute oral and 2 hour flight, but I did not want to fly that day. I just wanted to get home, sleep, and then tell everybody and celebrate. I did my first flight 3 days later.

There will be plenty of time to fly.
 
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I passed my 'ride late last year. I learned the following (besides the obvious flying part):

-I wish I would have relaxed and enjoyed the flight. A CFI (not mine) gave me that advice the day of, and afterwards I realized I should've listened. I got myself so wound up beforehand that I was miserable.

-as others have said, be confident (not cocky, but confident). You presumably have 40-80 hrs or more, and a CFI sign off. You're ready.

-just remember throughout the ride, if the DPE hasn't either told you to discontinue the ride or given you the option of doing so, you are passing. Focus on the next maneuver.

-You will likely bust a speed or altitude somewhere. This is ok as long as it's not a pattern of doing so. How you recover (and recognizing the problem and fixing it) are good evidence of judgement and safety and taken into account by the DPE.

-Did I mention enjoy the ride?

-I also took a flight the day before just to relax and fly. No maneuvers, no repeated pattern work. Fly for a burger. Fly just to sightsee. This will let you enjoy a flight after weeks of hammering out PTS stuff.

-Like the others I would wait a day for passengers. I got lucky in a way and did the oral one day and the practical the next due to weather, so I wasn't as drained but it was still taxing. I left excited but ready for a relaxing afternoon of being a vegetable. Had I done the oral the same day I would've been toast. Remember, it's not just the flight and oral, the nerves wear you out too.

Good luck, and please update!
 
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