Flying spouse

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evapilotaz

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Gilbert AZ. VFR All Year Baby
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Drone airspace abuser
Does your spouse know how to keep the airplane flying and work the comms if you become incapacitated for some reason? Mine doesn't and it concerns me. She won't go up with anyone but me so getting cfi time out. She refuses to touch the controls in fear of breaking the airplane. Granted she doesn't have much flying time with me. Maybe she will overcome this fear over time.
 
I made sure she could keep it level so I could eat.
Now she is taking lessons.
 
I wanted an airplane but wife said no. So I talked her into taking lessons. Now she is hooked and I have an airplane.
 
Some people just want to be lead, even if it kills them. Besides we can't learn everything that might save us everywhere.
 
My wife had fears too. I talked her into going to GIFT in Texas earlier this year. Girls in Flight Training helped her overcome her fears. Have her check them out on Facebook. They are a great group.
 
Mine got her pilot's license after her first Oshkosh. Now she wants to fly half the legs (or her current strategy now that I have my instrument rating: she gets to fly in the good weather because I'll get to fly when it isn't.).
 
My wife has agreed to take enough lessons that she can land the aircraft without killing herself this summer. Im ok with her not getting a certificate, dont have to compete for PIC time, and she tells me im doing enough stuff wrong already :D
 
My wife is coming up on 10,000 hours, so I'd hope so. That said, most of that time is in an Airbus, so who the hell knows?

Juuuuuust kidding, R&W! ;)
 
My wife already thinks she's Captain Kirk, I don't want her to have the skills to back it up.:)
 
evapilotaz said:
She refuses to touch the controls in fear of breaking the airplane.
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I can't ever figure this one out. My gf is the same way. She's fine to go flying but won't even try and keep the plane level.

jasstech said:
My wife had fears too. I talked her into going to GIFT in Texas earlier this year. Girls in Flight Training helped her overcome her fears. Have her check them out on Facebook. They are a great group.
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If I knew any girls that were pilots near our age that would help
 
Some advice for you CFIs out there. Teaching your YF to fly is like teaching her to drive on steroids. You correct her for a little right rudder and all of a sudden you don't like the kids, you don't like her cooking, you don't like the sex, you don't like the way she keeps house, you don't like her mother ... yada, yada, yada.

It may sound kinky, but find another CFI in the same situation and wife swap. That works out pretty good.

I did the same thing, got his YF through without a problem, but mine flunked her oral (couldn't do a wind triangle). I taught her wind triangle in 15 minutes, she went back and passed. I got two white slips on my record and the other CFI got the pinkie. **** happens. :yes:

Jim
 
My wife touched the controls for all on 2 minutes total so far. She wants to get more comfortable just sitting in the plane while I fly before she takes a lesson.
 
VanDy said:
My wife has agreed to take enough lessons that she can land the aircraft without killing herself this summer. Im ok with her not getting a certificate, dont have to compete for PIC time, and she tells me im doing enough stuff wrong already :D
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My Bride flew for maybe 15 minutes on our last trip. After the initial death grip she settled in and did a great job. She now wants to take companion course and learn to land the plane. She has no other interest in flying other than to save her skin if I stroke out or something which is a big change from the, if you go I go attitude. :eek:
 
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Although my wife claims she wants to at least learn how to land (her grandmother did, and her mother soloed), she's only touched the controls once in straight & level cruise flight and couldn't wait to give them back to me. :dunno:
 
I'm a CFI and my wife has no interest in learning to fly. I'm OK with that.
 
Pull the red handle. That's the passenger's job if I become incapacitated.
 
kayoh190;1627543[B said:
]My wife is coming up on 10,000 hours[/B], so I'd hope so. That said, most of that time is in an Airbus, so who the hell knows?

Juuuuuust kidding, R&W! ;)
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Has she solo'ed yet???:dunno:.........:D.......
 
NoHeat said:
Pull the red handle. That's the passenger's job if I become incapacitated.
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I assume you're a cirrus driver.... in some of our aircraft pulling the only red handle will kill the engine.
 
Nope. My wife tried to keep it straight and level for a few minutes while I fiddled with something. When I got the controls back we were in a 20deg right dive well into the yellow arc. she just looked at me like 'uuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh????????'
 
I am pretty sure my wife can enter a destination on the GPS and change a radio frequency... probably also set the transponder.

As for any actual flight we have a long way to go. I'm trying to encourage her to at least do the pinch hitter course but she's busy and it's not an interest for her.
 
N801BH said:
Has she solo'ed yet???:dunno:.........:D.......
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Almost! Her CFI says any day now, but I'm getting the sneaky suspicion he's dragging out the process a bit to build time. :)
 
My wife has pushed me back into flying 3 times over 15 years. I got her a massage for her last birthday... the gift certificate sat in the kitchen for 3 months. I finally used it myself. I got her an intro flight lesson a month ago as a "replacement" birthday gift. She is is hooked and can't wait to solo!
 
evapilotaz said:
I applaud you guys with wife's that learned to handle the airplane. Pull Red handle mixture plane goes down quickly. Not teaching her that one
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Hmmmmm..

There is a difference between a "red handle" and "Red Knob"..

Any married woman should know that....;););).....:D
 
The bride can keep it straight and level for a while... but would rely on the autopilot, autolevel, and the parachute more than some rusty skills. CT light sport.
 
I make her at least touch the yoke and I explain what I'm doing. This way I can log dual given. Not srs.
 
evapilotaz said:
Does your spouse know how to keep the airplane flying and work the comms if you become incapacitated for some reason? Mine doesn't and it concerns me. She won't go up with anyone but me so getting cfi time out. She refuses to touch the controls in fear of breaking the airplane. Granted she doesn't have much flying time with me. Maybe she will overcome this fear over time.
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No. And it doesn't concern me because she refuses to fly with me. :no:
 
Mine can.....15k hours, Citation Captain/instructor, GA CFII, t/w aerobatic pilot.....unless we're in a helicopter I suppose :-)

.…...but then I couldn't get us off the ground either. ;-)
 
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I had my wife do the pinch hitter course, I am of a mature age (ok youngish 66 yr old guy ) so we thought it best to give ourselves a little bit of insurance just in case I have a problem some day.
Since she did the course I do have her take the controls to help her keep the feel of the airplane and when we are going somewhere she usually handles the radio freq. changes anyway to take some workload off me, so hopefully if the worst should happen one day I would hope with the help of ATC or other pilots she would get the airplane back on the ground and be able to walk away from the landing..

Personally I would recommend anyone have their non pilot spouse take the pinch hitter, besides the obvious reasons for doing the course, it has also given my wife more confidence in the air and took away the nervous feelings she felt when we first started flying.
 
One piece of advice. Make sure the pinch hitter instructor recognizes the difference between teaching for a PPL and for a PH.

In a medical emergency a PH needs to be able to talk with ATC on the radio, read the compass/DG/GPS, use them to follow vector instructions, fly level, do turns, climb, descend, and fly a straight in approach to a runway that is selected to be into the wind, 6000-11000 ft long and 100-150 ft wide, and land.

All but the approach and landing are pretty standard PPL stuff, and any instructor will teach them pretty much the same way to a new student. But the landing is much different. Standard practice for the PPL is landing out of a standard tight GA pattern into a runway maybe 40 ft wide, 3000 ft long, and seemingly has a crosswind every day. If you have an instructor who can't (or won't) recognize the difference between the much easier landing requirement for a PH and the more challenging standard for a PPL, it is easy for the PH student to struggle so much with landing that they get frustrated and stop the PH training before accomplishing that key last step.
 
bkspero said:
Standard practice for the PPL is landing out of a standard tight GA pattern into a runway maybe 40 ft wide, 3000 ft long, and seemingly has a crosswind every day.
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We have only one runway like that around here but it is in terrible condition and most PPL practice takes place on much bigger runways (of course we are at 4500' MSL).

My wife has done an unassisted landing with our CFI - it was on a 150' wide, 9000' long runway in a 172 but I think she could get it down in one piece if anything happened to me. She knows how to use the radio and navigate.
 
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