Right seat policies

Emily wrote:

Strange question. I don't really care who sits in the right seat,
although I've never flown children. I don't think I'd like a child in
the front, they mess with stuff. I even let pretty much anyone fly...my
brother once made a 90 degree turn in IMC and it was the highlight of
his month (and a near heart attack for me).

Flying kids can be fun though; ever volunteered to fly 'Young Eagles'?
In my (limited) experience, they don't mess with stuff when flying;
actually the only really disruptive passengers I have had were
adults, folks who cannot stand the idea of not being in control,
not kids. What surprised me a couple of times is that even when
offered to fly the aircraft, some people decline, either not
interested, or worried about breaking something (even when assured
that it wouldn't be the case); I cannot imagine declining to play
with the controls if offered to do so aboard any kind of machinery!
but may be is it just me :-)

Sometimes I sit in the right seat, even solo.

that's what I do these days; still trying to finish this
CFI thing started an awful long time ago.

One thing I never do is fly in the back. I have been airsick back there
once, I feel a loss of control,

I have done that a couple of times on CAP flights and quite frankly
I don't enjoy it very much for the same reasons; it might not be
so bad if I were just a passenger enjoying the view, but I was
busy doing stuff in the back (plotting things on charts, taking
pictures, working on the laptop) and I was not really happy at the
end of the flights...

--Sylvain

Sylvain wrote:
Emily wrote:

Flying kids can be fun though; ever volunteered to fly 'Young Eagles'?
Nah. I don't like being around children much anyway. I wouldn't say I
hate them, but I don't want to go out of my way to be around them. I'll
stick with teaching adults to fly.

What surprised me a couple of times is that even when
offered to fly the aircraft, some people decline
It took my brother four flights to even put his hands on the controls.
He was scared that if I took my hands off the controls, we'd crash.

I have done that a couple of times on CAP flights and quite frankly
I don't enjoy it very much for the same reasons;
CAP requires sitting in the back? rethinks going to that meeting this week
The loss of control I can learn to deal with, but I hate the motion
sickness. I don't get it on commercial flights, though, go figure.

Emily wrote:

CAP requires sitting in the back? rethinks going to that meeting this
week The loss of control I can learn to deal with, but I hate the motion
sickness. I don't get it on commercial flights, though, go figure.

depends what job you are doing that day; on aircraft that allow
it (CAP has a 60hp per person rule), the pilot and observer sit
in front, scanners (or other roles, e.g., SDIS, etc.) sit in
the back; you can avoid it by flying aircraft that only take
two crews :-) and you got to qualify as a scanner before becoming
a mission pilot. Oh, and the whole qualifications thing takes
for bloody ever, even if you already know the material inside
out... It is as much a test of patience and dedication
as it is a test of skill :-) -- I keep at it because I am
a very patient person, but mostly because I got to hang around
really nice people.

--Sylvain

Emily wrote:

Nah. I don't like being around children much anyway. I wouldn't say I
hate them, but I don't want to go out of my way to be around them. I'll
stick with teaching adults to fly.

Today's young innocent faces, are tomorrow's clientele.

Of course, it was flying YE that I had my engine failure. The kids
(8 year old cub scouts) were ready to go up again. I had to point
out that I didn't think my plane was going to be able to fly again.

What was nicer was two out of the three parents actually waited around
the airport until I was done dealing with the state police and other
hassles to thank me for bringing their kids back alive. Similarly,
I got a letter from the EAA YE office thanking me for not killing any
Young Eagles.

Ron Natalie wrote:
Emily wrote:

Nah. I don't like being around children much anyway. I wouldn't say
I hate them, but I don't want to go out of my way to be around them.
I'll stick with teaching adults to fly.

Today's young innocent faces, are tomorrow's clientele.

Of course, it was flying YE that I had my engine failure.

I had my cousin in the plane during my first complete avionics failure.
My friend and I laughed through the entire thing...we'd been in solid
IMC in the same plane the day before and were just so relieved it held
off that all we could do was laugh. Anyway, it was just your average
run of the mill failure in VFR. Once everything died and my friend and I
took our headsets off on final, she thought something was REALLY wrong.
I guess we didn't explain that the engine would keep turning.

My cousin freaked out once we got home. Her parents lectured me to no
end about how dangerous it was and how she shouldn't have even been with
me and how I needed to take flying more seriously (they were upset that
I thought the whole thing was funny). They'd thought she was sitting at
the airport while I went to fly. So yeah, I guess I would hate to deal
with parents.

But seriously, it was funny! Her first time in a small airplane and the
entire stack decides to die and we end up with light gun signals.
Light gun signals! I went years without seeing that. g

Sylvain wrote:


Flying kids can be fun though; ever volunteered to fly 'Young Eagles'?
In my (limited) experience, they don't mess with stuff when flying;
actually the only really disruptive passengers I have had were
adults,

I fly Young Eagles. Some where around 11 or 12 you can find
a kid interested in aviation and I find the most interested one
and put him in the right side so he can have the opportunity
to control the aircraft. Younger than ten, they tend to chatter
away like it was an amusement park ride so I don't bother.