My 1st NON Pilot Passenger

H

HPNFlyGirl

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iBrookieMonster
Friday I had my 1st NON pilot passenger. My brother had to go to Charleston, SC, for a wedding. Since he had to work and mom & dad drove down earlier in the day I told him I would fly him down there.

My brother told me the only way he would fly down with me would be if I had a CFI with me. I told him....NO!!!!! I didn't need a CFI to fly with me for this trip. I did tell him that maybe my friend Eric could fly down with us. He told me that was the ONLY way he would fly down with me.

Eric met us at the airport that evening and we flew down to JZI. Taking off we had a 500 fpm climb. It seemed to take forever to get up to altitude. Beautiful sunset that night.

My brother coughed into the mic of his headset about busting mine and Eric's ear drums. Eric told him that I would get him back for that...sooner or later. I thought heh why wait for later lets do it now. I did a steep turn. He was a little scared, but in the end he said it was really fun. (that's what he told me today.)

Flying over Charleston was beautiful. My brother tried taking pictures but all we had were blurs. Cool picture though. Eric talked me through an approach into JZI. I had an nice landing. Even my brother said so.

We then met my mom and my friend. My mom and dad I guess they still don't think I am a pilot yet.
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My brother told them about the steep turn and my mom was like....YOU SHOULDN'T BE DOING STUFF LIKE THAT!!!!! Yes, mom.

After sending them off we fueled the plane and gave her a quart of oil and took back off to JNX. Eric worked the radios while I flew. Eric talked me through another approach into JNX. Fun stuff. I had an even better landing at JNX. Shut her down, pushed her back in the hangar and went home for the night.

I ended up logging 4.2 x/c time and about 3.7 of that was night time. Life is good.

Thank you Eric.
 
Sounds like fun, B!

Maybe next time, rather than scaring your brother, you could hit the iso switch and try to hold a conversation with him. That's always fun :D
 
Sounds like a great flight - and night time too! Very cool...

HPNFlyGirl said:
We then met my mom and my friend. My mom and dad I guess they still don't think I am a pilot yet.
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They'll warm to the idea. I remember when I got my private license. I tell Dad (retired Air Force), he says "congratulations." I say, 'So, Dad, care to go up for a flight?" "No." Gee, thanks for the confidence builder...:rolleyes:

Couple of months later, he just starts 'casually' asking how far is it to that new casino in Mississippi.... 'you could fly all that way? I think they got a new airport out there.' Uh, yeah..... "Oh, OK. i was just wondering about that." yeah, right....

Almost got him to Gaston's last year, but he backed out at the last minute. Something tells me I'll be making a casino run sometime soon....
 
Way to go Brook. There's nothing like getting some of that x-c under your belt.
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That's AWESOME Leslie.

This is funny. I bought my mom, dad & brother a "Pilots Journal" log book. When my brother showed up at the house he was like...I LEFT MY LOGBOOK AT HOME!!!!! CAN YOU GO FIND MOM & DADS AND SWITCH WITH THEM!!!!!" Uh NO. I will sign it when you come home. "Ah....ok." (THIS LOGBOOK IS NOT BEING USED FOR FLIGHT INSTRUCTION!!!!!)
 
My dad flew in the Pacific in WW II, survived obviously. When I got my private ticket, and had a couple hundred hr., I flew to his town on the way to see some other family at Christmas, thought I'd take him up for a scenic flight around his town as a present and was quite surprised that he refused to even get into the plane. His excuse was that he'd flown enough in the war...however, then I found out that he and another old geezer were flying, regularly, in the geezer's old Waco biplane, open cockpit, and keeping "warm" by having a couple of glasses of Scotch whiskey, this was flying in the winter. I read him the riot act about the alcohol, and he never did fly with me. Oh, well.

By the way, they were administering the Scotch prior to takeoff....
 
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awesome Brook. It's always nice to have passengers along to share the ride. I'm taking a few folks to JZI in a couple weeks. How was the airport...I've read some reports that 9/27 isn't is great shape, but I believe that's the longer runway with an ILS or LOC isn't it?
 
Baron, what's the problem? No drinking within 50 feet...good to go.

Brooke, way to go. Sounds like a great flight. Night x/c is good.
 
Brook,

Give it time.

1) It takes time to come to grips with the idea someone you know well has taken a huge step like becoming a pilot.

2) Sometimes it never comes and if that happens so be it.

Keep flying and practicing and getting better. All that will come with time.
 
121Dispatch said:
awesome Brook. It's always nice to have passengers along to share the ride. I'm taking a few folks to JZI in a couple weeks. How was the airport...I've read some reports that 9/27 isn't is great shape, but I believe that's the longer runway with an ILS or LOC isn't it?
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JZI is nice. It was dark, but it didn't feel too bad rolling down the runway. Be prepared to spend $5.00 a gallon on fuel.
 
Baron 55 said:
I found out that he and another old geezer were flying, regularly, in the geezer's old Waco biplane, open cockpit, and keeping "warm" by having a couple of glasses of Scotch whiskey, this was flying in the winter. I read him the riot act about the alcohol, and he never did fly with me. Oh, well.

By the way, they were administering the Scotch prior to takeoff....
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Richard said:
Baron, what's the problem? No drinking within 50 feet...good to go.
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Well you would not want to spill a fine malted beverage like that and drinking and flying are bad, so yeah, better to drink before flying. :yes::rofl::D:yes:
 
Let us know when you really take your first passenger by yourself.











:D
 
HPNFlyGirl said:
My brother coughed into the mic of his headset about busting mine and Eric's ear drums. Eric told him that I would get him back for that...sooner or later. I thought heh why wait for later lets do it now. I did a steep turn. He was a little scared, but in the end he said it was really fun. (that's what he told me today.)
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Not smart. If you want your family members or other non-pilots to fly with you, you need to instill confidence. When you do something unexpected and "different" like that (different for most folks meaning something they haven't experienced on an airliner) they're going to get scared. Even if they say it was fun when their feet are back to being firmly planted on the ground, the bottom line is that they were SCARED IN THE AIRPLANE. Negative associations like that will remain.

Your parents, having heard the story, will probably take even longer to fly with you now.

As far as getting people to fly... Patience (it took 3 years before my parents would fly with me, for example). Offer the opportunity, but only occasionally (not every time you fly) or they'll just get used to saying no. Do cool stuff and tell them about it afterwards - I had a really cool flight to check out the fall colors in 2005, and I showed the pictures to my mother. Last year, when the leaves began to change, she actually asked me if I'd take her flying! (I nearly had a heart attack. :rofl:)

Then, by making the entire experience pleasurable, you'll earn repeat visits to your cockpit. Mom flew again shortly after the first time. :)
 
Kent...my brother has flown with me before but with a CFI. He loved doing steep turns, slow flight, s turns and turns about a point. Its not like he had never done them before. I just did it because I knew he could handle it.
 
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