What if the pilot goes unconscious? my wife took a pinch hitter course...

Wagondriver said:
Interesting, all the backcountry pilots I know would disagree. Even guys that compete very successfully in STOL competitions. Doing a nice greaser wheel landing stopping in under 700' in my 180 is not something you do without practice.

My girlfriend asked once if I thought she could land my plane, a simple NO was all I had for her.
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I for one can’t wait to see Poppins at the STOL competition.
 
I'd rather have my wife take the yoke than wait for Jesus to do so...
 
I'm very happy you made this video. My wife loved it and could relate to Poppins quite a bit even though my wife actually never had problems flying with me. It is her nervousness touching the controls. In the past she expressed interest in taking flight lessons and getting her own PPL and this video is good inspiration.

for those talking about the YouTube ads, I have the YouTube premium family plan and I share it with 5 other family members.
 
cowtowner said:
I had my wife watch it last night. She, like Poppins had to get over her deathly fear of flying to go fly with me.
When we first met, she wouldn’t fly commercial. Now she travels the world for her job and has got comfortable with the big iron.

My wife both cried and smiled watching your video. She felt the same feelings as Poppins as she told her story. That goes to show you what a great storyteller you are. You do create some of the best aviation content online. The ending had her upset all night though, when she talked about having to live life without you if something happened. It brought to the forefront that what we do does have inherent risks. I explained that we lost a neighbor last month because he slipped off his boat dock, hit his head and drowned. Told her that didn’t stop us from having a house at the lake or enjoying our boat....

I also had a very visceral reaction watching it the first time as I recognized all of the similar feelings.
I love flying and I want to share the experience with her. She loves me and wants to go places and experience it also. It’s a huge battle sometimes to get her to go on trips.

we have talked about doing the pinch hitter course and this will make that come to fruition. My wife is a huge control freak, and her ability to learn to control the plane will take some of her fear away.

My wife also asked if y’all were going to be at OSH, because she said she would love to sit down and have a conversation with her about this. Kind of like peer counseling.

My wife is a very successful pharma executive. Gets paid big bucks and is a leader in her field. Her fear of flying really bugs her as she has faced so many fears in her career and overcame them to get where she is at today.

Again, great content. Keep up the great work. And I’ve noticed a small curve to your cap bill
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Thanks for sharing this. It's a great feeling that sharing her vulnerability online in a video can connect with someone else. It is the entire reason why I got into making movies over 25 years ago so it's rewarding when the work we put in connects in a meaningful way. We are really trying to make it to Osh - I work freelance and if I get work that overlaps I'm not in a position to turn it down based on the horrendous pandemic year for film production the past 14 months...it's picked up just about back to normal now so I take the jobs that come in. Hopefully it will work out and we can make it. Would love to meet y'all. On my patreon site we do monthly Zoom hangouts and some of the guys are saying the wives want to do their own...kind of like a support group. LOL.
 
My FC is offering this. Unfortunately my wife isn’t interested. Yet anyways. She did accept the controls fairly recently and did a bit of hand flying. Before that it was like nope nope nope. Slow progress.
 
RudyP said:
I would like her to take some training - not sure how realistic that is with a jet though.
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Tantalum said:
In theory she'll be talking to air traffic control and using the autopilot's heading and altitude modes it may be able to send her to somewhere that is VFR..

I think the goal is getting her to survive the ordeal.
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That was more my theory with my wife. I showed her how to work the GPS/autopilot, practiced it and wrote her a simple cheat sheet for the glove box. She can turn on the a/p, select/activate an approach on the gps, tell ATC what’s she’s doing, activate approach mode on the a/p and probably walk away from the plane at a runway.

My wife has grabbed the yoke a few times but has zero desire to get her PPL or train outside of survival. After this we also did a bit of sim time together.

I’m not nearly the videographer that @FlyingMonkey is but here’s an older (crappy) video I have of training with my wife in a different style for those interested.

3:43 or so starts the incapacitated spouse bit.

The sim was here from 12:53-17:15.

As @eman1200 alludes to, who knows what will happen if I throw it in but she at least feels a little better. Confidence is everything...right? :)
 
Really enjoyed this. Also had my wife watch. She is definitely scared, a lot like Poppins, but gets the need for the training. Setting up soon. Thanks.
 
great video and i have seen both. havent read all the posts, so this may have been covered. we have discussed this before on this board, but i think its lot easier for the pax to hit the the level button, then switch to AP and use the heading knob to fly around which he/she figures out what next to do.
 
The best outcome is that taking a pinch-hitter course will spur your spouse on to getting the PPL. That's what happened to my wife. It's great to have a copilot when traveling IFR. She can work the radios while I do other things, among other tasks. Not that she is current at the moment, but in a pinch she would be able to land the plane if necessary. She likes a C152 better than my Traveler, though, but she has landed the Traveler on both pavement and grass during transition training. I have to think that a PPL-trained pilot has a better chance of a safe outcome than a pinch-hitter trainee, even if out of currency.
 
Radar Contact said:
Just have it trimmed nice and maybe you’ll be like the Mooney pilot who had carbon monoxide poisoning and it’ll auto land in a field for when you come to. :)
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No autopilot. It's just gonna roll to one side and auger in once the fuel imbalances.
 
Radar Contact said:
Just have it trimmed nice and maybe you’ll be like the Mooney pilot who had carbon monoxide poisoning and it’ll auto land in a field for when you come to. :)
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…or the cirrus guy (old cirrus, not a new one with all the envelope protection) who tried to commit suicide by downing a bunch of pills, getting up to altitude over the desert and letting the plane crash (no autopilot) yet survived.

link here
 
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RudyP said:
…or the cirrus guy (old cirrus, not a new one with all the envelope protection) who tried to commit suicide by downing a bunch of pills, getting up to altitude over the desert and letting the plane crash (no autopilot) yet survived.

link here
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That’s some tough luck lol
 
My wife was very worried about if something happened to me on our flight and she has no desire to learn how to fly our aircraft. Our solution was to get a plane that had an airframe parachute. Her instructions are: 1. Turn off ignition key and 2. Pull red handle.
It was enough to remove the fear of her getting down safely and now she loves to fly with me.
 
another plot twist: doesn't it take around 50lbs of pressure to pull the chute? which is over your head? take your wife to the gym and see if she can do a 50lb overhead tricep extension. hey, at the very least, it's an excuse to get your fatty sweety in the gym!
 
eman1200 said:
another plot twist: doesn't it take around 50lbs of pressure to pull the chute? which is over your head? take your wife to the gym and see if she can do a 50lb overhead tricep extension. hey, at the very least, it's an excuse to get your fatty sweety in the gym!
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Don't you pull it downward, with gravity?
 
eman1200 said:
pinch hitter courses are the equivalent of signing your wife up for a few self defense classes and thinking she could actually defend herself against a 200+# attacker. I mean if it gives her a warm fuzzy feeling, great, but let's be real. it'll buy you a very, very small chance of a successful outcome. a subset of pilots fly regularly and can't figure out how to land well (just ask steingar ;) ). in reality, it's getting her to 1) be able to use the radio, and 2) feeling a little more comfortable handling the airplane, 'maybe' keeping the wings level for a little while. but simply going thru a pinch hitter course and not getting your PPL...and then NOT PRACTICING REGULARLY...might get you an extra 1 or 2% chance of success. which is better than not having that extra chance, but c'mon now.....

.....eman heads for cover......
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Eman needs more than cover. There are two types of pilots. Those who land badly now and again, and those who lie about it.

As far as the pinch hitter course, personally I think it the best value investment in safety you can make. You're basically programming a really nice autopilot. That said, if the right seat pax flies the airplane and lands it, the right seat passenger is less likely to panic if the chips are down. The right seat passenger will have a far better chance of successfully landing the aircraft if they've done it before. Keep in mind that my definition of "success" in this case is everyone survives.
 
steingar said:
Eman needs more than cover. There are two types of pilots. Those who land badly now and again, and those who lie about it...
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oh, I thought there were two types of pilots, those who've had prop strikes and those who haven't. my bad.
 
Right after my PPL checkride my CFI offered to teach my wife to land the plane. Just beat the pattern until she could land decently, free, on the house, all I'd have to do was rent the plane. My wife said no way, and to this day she won't touch a thing, not even punch in a squawk code. She thinks if she touches anything on the panel it will be instant death.
 
EdFred said:
If this pilot goes unconscious it's gonna be a crash since I'm usually the only one in the plane.
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This is why I've been on your case about finding a hot babe to fly along with you. She might be a tad expensive, but she could also save your life one day. :)
 
RyanB said:
This is why I've been on your case about finding a hot babe to fly along with you. She might be a tad expensive, but she could also save your life one day. :)
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Yea, but is it worth the expense?

Discuss
 
woodchucker said:
My FC is offering this. Unfortunately my wife isn’t interested. Yet anyways. She did accept the controls fairly recently and did a bit of hand flying. Before that it was like nope nope nope. Slow progress.
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Sounds like my wife. I've been flying for just over 20 years and she has touched the controls twice in that time. The first time was shortly after I got my PPL and she scared herself and gave the controls back to me in a matter of a few seconds. I'm still trying to figure out how she scared herself, she hadn't deviated from straight and level. The second time was a few years later and she did just fine.

Now, as far as navigating goes, she travels with me across the state with a sectional in her lap. If I ask her where we are GPS couldn't do a better job. :D

As far as the AOPA Pinch HItter class goes, I bought her the course (on VHS, that's how long ago it was) and the video tape shrink wrap is still untouched.
 
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