On Tue, 3 Oct 2006 21:03:24 -0400, "Kyle Boatright"
wrote:

I'm sure most of us have been surprised by a passenger's action at one time
or another, but my wife (Kelly) startled the heck out of me this weekend.

We made a trip to Texas to visit her school (Texas A&M) to see a football
game and to visit with family and friends while we were in the area. At a
stop near San Antonio, Kelly's brother and our 3 year old nephew were
meeting us at the airport. When we landed, it was fairly windy (10+ knots),
and there was a decent crosswind component which added to the unfamiliar
field, relatively narrow runway, and not a lot of set-back between the
runway and various immovable obstacles to make it a higher concentration
than normal landing.

On final, we could see Kelly's brother and our nephew standing on a taxiway,
about 50' off of the runway centerline, right alongside the numbers at the
approach end. I didn't think twice about this, instead concentrating on
making a good landing. So, as I began the flare about 5' or 10' high, right
over the threshold, Kelly started waving like a maniac at our nephew. The
RV-6 has side by side seating, so her hand was very close to my face and
filled most of my peripereral vision on that side. It was extremely
startling, and I put a pretty good crease in my seat in the moment before I
realized what was happening (and that I wasn't being landed on by another
airplane, or hitting a giant bird, or whatever).

The landing was surprisingly good. On the post landing debrief, I mentioned
to Kelly that she probably shouldn't distract her pilot in the landing phase
of flight by waving maniacally right in his face during the flare.

One more thing to add to my passenger brief.

Many years ago, I was driving on one of those "single track" roads over in
Scotland, with a teenage (female) cousin in the pasenger seat. Suddenly,
one of the ubiquitous sheep that seem to line these roads decided to cross
right in front of me. The cousin shrieked, turned her head to the side, and
wrapped her arms around my head -- just as I was taking evasive action.

I hate to think what might have happened if this had taken place over the
threshold with a deer, fox, goose, or some other animal crossing the runway.

There are distractions, and then there are DISTRACTIONS!!! :-)