Stefan wrote:
Have I got this right? You are not a flight instructor. (If you are,
please correct me.) Despite this, you hand over the controls to a
stranger.

First - if you had bothered to read and comprehend his post, you would
know this is someone who had been hinting at wanting a ride for a long
time - thus by definition not a stranger but someone he has known for
years.

Second - having a flight instructor ticket is nothing special, and
unfortunately the CFI PTS does little (more like nothing) to
effectively test the ability to monitor an untrained person's flight
and recover from upsets, so the average CFI curriculum does little
(more like nothing) to teach this. This is a skill best learned
incrementally. There is no reason that any reasonably experienced
pilot shouldn't do what Dan did. In fact, that's how good flight
instructors are made - by allowing passengers to take progressively
more action on a flight. It starts with straight and level at
altitude, and eventually progresses to maneuvers, takeoffs, even
landings. That way, when you have that first paying student in the
plane who reasonably expects you to be comfortable with allowing him to
fly, you're not trying to learn it all at once.

And all this *with a passenger in the back*!

Yeah, he really should have briefed the passenger better and let her
know what to expect. He knows that. Other than that, why not with a
passenger in the back? The incremental risk is really minimal, and
intro lessons are routinely done with passengers in the back - by
pilots with way less experience than Dan.

Michael
CFI - ASME, IA, G - as if it matters