Taking newbies flying...

On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:23:29 +0000, Jose wrote:

(I need to remember to start him
on the headset indoctrination program I invented for his older brother).

Do tell!

Alex was flying by the time he was six-months old. As his motor skills
developed, the headset became an issue (because he'd remove it).

So I gave him a David Clark (think: robust) as a toy. He'd wear it while
he rode his rocking plane (a "rocking horse" in the shape of a plane
instead of the four-footed-non-aviating-beast-of-transport) and played
with his toy yoke.

After a while of that, he wouldn't want the headset removed much less take
it off himself in flight.

- Andrew

P.S. The DC headset survived.

On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 17:07:08 -0500, Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:

I don't think it had anything to do with me taking the controls.

Ah. Thanks...

Andrew

I've been lucky in that I've never suffered from motion sickness being
it in a car, on a boat or in a plane. One thing that surprised me was I
was acting as a safety pilot for a PP who was an instrument student. He
wanted to practice some under the hood and fly some approaches. The
airport was busy when we launched so I suggested we head to the practice
area and do some steep turns. We did the steep turns, very well from
what I saw and gave approach a call to request a few approaches. On the
way towards the FAF on a vector the student asked me if he could take
off the foggles for a bit as the steep turns had left him a bit queasy.
It didn't take long to get to the FAF at which point the foggles went
back on and he flew 3 decent ILS's and a reasonable VOR to a landing.

It's been a few years since I was undergoing my IR training so you
forget that some of this stuff can be a bit rough on the inner ear until
you've got more hood hours under your belt.

Experience is a great teacher.

Robert

Mark Hansen wrote:
On 12/13/06 12:26, Andrew Gideon wrote:

On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 22:57:37 -0500, Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:


hen the fellow let me take the controls. We went up and down (gingerly)
and turned left and right (gingerly). Now that we were straight and level
(more or less) I began to get a little green around the gills.

That's pretty odd. One sure-fire cure for nausea I've found is to have
the ill passenger take the controls. The only time it didn't work is
when the passenger in question refused.

This is the first time I've heard of someone feeling ill from taking the
controls.

Any idea why?

- Andrew



When I was first practicing maneuvers (especially steep turns), I would
get really airsick - I remember asking my instructor to leave that practice
for the end of the flight, so I could get on the ground quickly after we
finished them. - I was at the controls the entire time.

I did get over it, though, but it took a while.

Mark Hansen wrote:

At least that's my theory. It may just be so much crap.


Maybe, but craps been known to cause nausea as well ;-)



Spoken by someone that sounds like they've changed a diaper or two.

Robert Chambers wrote:
Mark Hansen wrote:

At least that's my theory. It may just be so much crap.


Maybe, but craps been known to cause nausea as well ;-)



Spoken by someone that sounds like they've changed a diaper or two.



Or stood downwind from me.




--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

My rules for newby flights -
1) Only in smooth air
2) Plan a short flight (make it too short)
3) Don't hand the controls over to a newby if there is another newby on
board.
4) No banks over 20 degrees.

Morgans schrieb:

What is the big F'en problem, here?

Yes, it ended well. But not everything's well that ends well. The
accident database is full of things which happened to end well 999 times
and ended as a statistic the 1000th.

There are several problems.

First problem, it's just plain illegal. Agreed, this isn't much of an
issue to me, either. I've been doing many illegal things myself. Still,
it is illegal.

Second problem, and this *is* an issue: He let the passenger handle the
controls right at the first take off. I have let passengers handle the
controls myself (yes, illegally), but always at altitude and when
workload was low. Still illegal, but no big problem. But right at the
start, it *is* an issue. This is one of the most dangerous moments of a
flight, workload is extremely high, and if the passenger screws up,
there is very little time to react. I doubt a non-instructor would be
able to save the day if the passenger just pulled back the yoke with
force, for example, or if a strong crosswind gust hits the plane at the
moment of rotation, as a second example. I can think of ten other
possibilities which overtax a non-instructor. BTW, no instructor I know
would let a student fly a take off without first having checked at safe
altitude how he handles the controls.

And third problem, there was a third party involved. I have no problem
with two guys who agree to try something stupid. If the two talk it
over, if both are aware of the risk and if both, fully informed, agree
to take that risk together, then I have no problem with it. I've been
doing this myself. But no way to involve other persons!

Stefan

Stefan,

First problem, it's just plain illegal.


Uhm, I'm afraid you are wrong. This is not illegal in the US. The word
"command" in PIC is taken seriously in the US - the PIC can decide what
happens onboard, including who is manipulating the controls. A PIC in
the US could sit in the baggage compartment.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Thomas Borchert schrieb:

Uhm, I'm afraid you are wrong. This is not illegal in the US. The word
"command" in PIC is taken seriously in the US - the PIC can decide what
happens onboard, including who is manipulating the controls. A PIC in
the US could sit in the baggage compartment.

I'm not sure he may hand over the controls to an unqualified person,
except if needed, of course. But always eager to learn something.

(Actually, I thought it to be legal myself earlier, deducing from the
sea laws. Then I've learnt that in aircraft, it is not, at least not
over here.)

Stefan

On 12/13/06 14:29, Andrew Gideon wrote:
On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:23:29 +0000, Jose wrote:

(I need to remember to start him
on the headset indoctrination program I invented for his older brother).

Do tell!

Alex was flying by the time he was six-months old. As his motor skills
developed, the headset became an issue (because he'd remove it).

So I gave him a David Clark (think: robust) as a toy. He'd wear it while
he rode his rocking plane (a "rocking horse" in the shape of a plane
instead of the four-footed-non-aviating-beast-of-transport) and played
with his toy yoke.

After a while of that, he wouldn't want the headset removed much less take
it off himself in flight.

- Andrew

P.S. The DC headset survived.


They seem to be built like tanks. I just watched the end of "The Water Boy"
with Adam Sandler, and saw that the evil coach was wearing a DC headset on
the sidelines ;-)