Brien K. Meehan wrote:

C Kingsbury wrote:

Anybody ever have somebody get real scared, how did
you deal with it?


I surprised a passenger once. I was on a localizer approach, right
down to minimums (OVC005), and saw the runway right at the MAP. I was
still 500 feet above it, and I instinctively put it in a hard slip to
get down quickly.

I sensed a mild gasp from the right seat. My passenger had apparently
never flown sideways before. I very calmly (and confidently) said,
"This is called a side slip. It's a little trick to slow down and lose
altitude quickly, so we can land." That reassured her perfectly,
although she described the approach as "exciting" after we landed.

I've done the same thing VFR ... with the same results. It is the one
thing I never think to brief the pax on in advance because, as you say,
it is simply instinctive for us and you just don't always know when you
are going to need a little slip.

Probably the biggest surpise I gave a passenger was coming into, I
think, Lynchburg, VA with a stong crosswind. I was crabbing probably 20
degrees on final and I had the pax helping to find the runway (also a
close to miniumums day). I forgot to tell the passenger to look for the
runway 20 degrees off the nose. He saw it first, but asked why it was
"crooked." :-)


Matt