C Kingsbury wrote:
What are your standards for taking passengers up into actual conditions?

They must be somewhere near 98.6F with an IQ above room temperature! :-)
Seriously, I've never given it much conscious thought I just admit.


I've developed a decent feel for what people will tolerate VFR- who can take
a few bumps, who will get scared if its windy, etc. But I haven't got any
idea what to make of taking pax into the soup. Is it as disorienting for
them as it is for an untrained VFR pilot? Are they usually OK so long as
it's smooth? What do you tell them before you take them into actual for the
first time, if anything? Anybody ever have somebody get real scared, how did
you deal with it?

I think I've only had family members or colleagues from work with me on
flights in actual. So far, nobody has had any problems other than
boredom. However, all of my colleagues are seasoned airline travelers
so they are used to flying when they can't see anything out the windows.
And my wife and kids seemed to not have any problem either.
Typically, disorientation comes from getting conflicting signals to your
senses (the instruments vs. your inner ear). If you can't see outside
and you don't look at the instruments, then there aren't any conflicting
signals (the inner ear wins if the eyes can't see anything). So, I
don't see why a passenger would get disoriented as long as they don't
know enough to look at the AI. The one exception I can think of is
flying between layers that are tilted enough to where your eyes think
you are tilted when you are actually straight and level. I've heard of
this, but have never experienced it myself. Whenever I've been between
layers, they didn't have enough tilt to be noticeable.

Good luck with your first passenger in actual.


Matt