How do you get a discovery flight on vacation?

dcat127

dcat127

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My family has a vacation planned Feb. (Phoenix AZ if that makes any difference). I always think it would be fun to go for a short flight when on vacation. Will flight schools give a "discovery flight" to someone that is already a pilot, and lives out of the area and has no plans of actually doing any further flight training?
 
I've done that a couple times. Been meaning to pick up an acro intro next time I'm near KSNA...
 
I used to go to Portland OR a long time back, on business. As I recall it was made clear what I was after so it wasn't treated like a rental checkout with all the checkout stuff...it was pretty much as you described a discovery flight. "Do whatever you want" as Eman said... except not knowing the area I didn't know what I wanted..... just to see the area and get some flight time in. I was reasonably current at that time so it was The CFI pointed me to a nice little tour. Did it twice there a year apart. The most memorable flight was a nice tour low over the Mt St Helens crater, and included a flight up the Columbia River gorge. Beautiful day!

A few years back as a very very rusty pilot, I went to the local flight school with my then young son, mostly to take him for a ride but also just to get up for a bit just for fun. I asked for and received a discovery flight with my son in the back seat. I was so rusty it truly was in most ways a discovery flight.... but another good day!
 
I find myself in that situation right now. We are “wintering” in Myrtle Beach for eight weeks. My Ercoupe is tucked away in a hangar nearly 500 miles to the north. I brought my headset with me and am about to look for a local flight school - as soon as the temperatures warm up a bit and the howling winds abate. I’m willing to drop the cash for a CFI and a rental but, of course, would prefer a lower cost way to get in the air.
 
dcat127 said:
My family has a vacation planned Feb. (Phoenix AZ if that makes any difference). I always think it would be fun to go for a short flight when on vacation. Will flight schools give a "discovery flight" to someone that is already a pilot, and lives out of the area and has no plans of actually doing any further flight training?
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I don't know about a "Discovery Flight." The lessons that go by that name tend to be discounted, very short, and are intended as a marketing tool for new students.

OTOH, if you are talking about a local lesson, all it takes is a call or email to a local flight school. I used to do that all the time. In some cases, it was a checkout to bee able to rent the airplane, but others it was a single flight.

Just of the top of my head without checking my logbook, I'm recalling flights in Hawaii, to Catalina Island in California, a glider lesson in Minden while on vacation in Tahoe, flight and landing below sea level over the Salton Sea with a landing at KTRM in a Tiger (my first flight in one) at Thermal, a great day of instrument flying out of Hilton Head, a flight around the Seattle area ...** Those were single flights. Then there were checkouts for later use in Florida, Napa County, .... I may have some kind of record doing this.

When I was based in Colorado, I used to do those kinds of flights with visitors all the time who wanted a taste of density altitude or a landing at a mountain airport.

** Oh! And how could I forget this one before we got on the cruise ship, or the one up a glacier out of Anchorage, after the cruise was over.

 
I've done it a bunch of times, in Hawaii, Florida, New Zealand, Australia.....CFIs don't care if you are going to keep working with them. They're just happy to make the money. If you're really lucky, they'll give you a short checkout and let you take the airplane. I wanted to take a flight once with a colleague, but the FBO had only two planes, a C152 and a C172, and the C172 was booked. The guy said, "let's see what you can do", and we went up for the shortest check ride I've ever had. One trip around the pattern and he said, "I can see you know what you're doing; take the plane." I think what he was looking for was my management of the high DA (almost too high for the airplane). Since I trained in a high DA environment, I did, in fact, know what I was doing. It was a great flight. Not only could we take the plane, but I used Sparky Imeson's method gaining altitude when the engine couldn't do it any more--riding the thermals. My passenger got kind of green around the gills, but I got it up another couple thousand feet than the engine wanted to take it.
 
That’s what I’ve done while on vacation in Honolulu, Anchorage, and Glacier National Park. Bring a headset and maybe logbook. Tell them you want sightseeing.
 
judypilot said:
we went up for the shortest check ride I've ever had. One trip around the pattern and he said, "I can see you know what you're doing; take the plane." I
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My longest for a rental was a time I forgot my logbook. I was already in the database from a flight 5 years earlier, so they required me to do a flight review with them :D

It was worth it. When I returned from my post-checkout rental, I met John Glenn.
 
My shortest was also once around the pattern. I had planned to take my Taylorcraft on a business trip, NJ to MD, but had an engine out on takeoff (but that's another story). Still needed to get to MD... even in a slow plane like the T- Craft we could go down and back in one day whereas driving would mean staying overnight. I figured I'd rent a 172 from the FBO, but I hadn't rented from them since I bought the T- Craft. Went up with the CFI for a checkout while my co-worker waited in the office. It was a very gusty day, one of those days then the bottom drops out just before you flare... I recovered, managed a surprisingly smooth landing, she said, "OK" and we taxied back. After my co-worker and I were airborne on course, he told me that the FBO owner was watching and said, "If he made that landing he can take the plane."
 
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