Taking newbies flying...

....offers endless opportunities for screwing up the experience for them, as
I've demonstrated yet again.

My business partner's 21-yr. old son has been hinting around for a few years
that he wanted to try flying sometime. When he finally asked outright to
take a flight, I was happy to agree, especially since he would be bringing
along his supermodel-quality girlfriend.

So T_ and M_ showed up at the airport Saturday afternoon. T_ was interested
in everything that was happening on the ramp and M_ was stopping students
and flight instructors in mid-sentence as she walked by. The weather was
perfect and this was going to be great fun.

After the walkaround and passenger briefing, I got my pax headsetted and
buckled in and gave T_ a description of how the controls worked. I let him
steer on the long taxi out to RWY 36. Cleared for takeoff, I let him
control the yoke. He did fine on the rotation and climbout, so I let him
make the climbing 180 deg. left turn to our departure heading. He did that
fine, too. Once I got T_ trimmed out and flying level, I turned to M_ in
the back seat to ask how she was doing.

Ummm..., not so well: M_ had the look of someone who had just stared death
in the face.

" Doing OK, M_?"

"Uh, better now," said M_, attempting a brave smile. "That turn was a
little scary!"

What M_ wasn't saying, of course, was that she had just spent a few seconds
fearing for her life because an apparent lunatic had turned over control of
an itty bitty airplane to her virtually clueless boyfriend, who promptly put
it in a bank 500' from the ground.

M_ brightened up a bit as the flight went along but she mentioned the
scary departure turn a couple more times. I was cursing myself the whole
way. I had really screwed it up by doing a wholly inadequate job of
preparing my pax for what they were going to experience. As a result, I
somehow doubt that I will have the pleasure of M_'s company on any future
flights.

Lesson learned: tell your newbie pax everything that is going to happen in
advance. Be especially detailed about any plans for their controlling the
airplane, and find out if they are going to be uncomfortable with anything
you have planned.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

"Dan Luke" wrote in
:

Lesson learned: tell your newbie pax everything that is going to
happen in advance. Be especially detailed about any plans for their
controlling the airplane, and find out if they are going to be
uncomfortable with anything you have planned.

Good tip Dan. It truly sounds like you did salvage the flight for the
person though???

I had a newbie up yesterday too, but after quizzing him about what he
liked for hobbies and he rode bulls, I knew my Sundowner would be a much
tamer beast.

I had a student pilot in the right seat, and he sat in the back and we
went up to Greenwood MS to visit an "airliner graveyard" where they strip
down DC10's L1011's, and any other jet model you can think of for scrap.
Nice to walk around these huge planes and get a feeling of being so small
:-)

I had the newbie take the controls on the way back after I was straight
and level. I had him do some turns willy nilly, and then had him "drive
the plane home" using the GPS and visual references outside.

I don't let anybody near the controls during climb in the pattern as the
last thing I want them to hear is the stall horn on climb out. In fact,
I tend to "simulate" a soft field take off, by getting off the ground as
quick as I can, lower the nose a little so I can get ground effect to
help me build my speed up and keep the angle of attack lower.

Newbie loved it, and got an email from the student, that all the newbie
talked about was the flight :-)

CAVU and calm air always makes it nice.

Allen

Got to agree with you Allen, I find it tough letting a newbie take the
controls during takeoff.

Briefing the pax before a flight is very important, ,there have been so
many times when you think a newbie can handle most aspects of the
flight but then assumption are always a bad thing.
A Lieberma wrote:
"Dan Luke" wrote in
:

Lesson learned: tell your newbie pax everything that is going to
happen in advance. Be especially detailed about any plans for their
controlling the airplane, and find out if they are going to be
uncomfortable with anything you have planned.

Good tip Dan. It truly sounds like you did salvage the flight for the
person though???

I had a newbie up yesterday too, but after quizzing him about what he
liked for hobbies and he rode bulls, I knew my Sundowner would be a much
tamer beast.

I had a student pilot in the right seat, and he sat in the back and we
went up to Greenwood MS to visit an "airliner graveyard" where they strip
down DC10's L1011's, and any other jet model you can think of for scrap.
Nice to walk around these huge planes and get a feeling of being so small
:-)

I had the newbie take the controls on the way back after I was straight
and level. I had him do some turns willy nilly, and then had him "drive
the plane home" using the GPS and visual references outside.

I don't let anybody near the controls during climb in the pattern as the
last thing I want them to hear is the stall horn on climb out. In fact,
I tend to "simulate" a soft field take off, by getting off the ground as
quick as I can, lower the nose a little so I can get ground effect to
help me build my speed up and keep the angle of attack lower.

Newbie loved it, and got an email from the student, that all the newbie
talked about was the flight :-)

CAVU and calm air always makes it nice.

Allen

Great story, Dan.

I've never let a "newbie" handle the controls on takeoff -I'm too
paranoid--, but last summer I took a friend's 15-year-old son on a
flight. We took off out of Gallatin Field near Bozeman, MT and flew
west to the Missouri confluence near Three Forks. Once at altitude I
handed the controls over to him. He did great.

We turned north and followed the Missouri to Canyon Ferry, then
followed the creek east between the Big Belts and the Horseshoe Hills
toward Maudlow. I wanted to skirt the north end of the Bridger
Mountains and follow the Shields River Valley south to Livingston, then
west over Bozeman Pass and back to Gallatin Field.

Once we got established heading east between the Big Belts and the
Horseshoes I told him to maintain a 100 heading by following the
compass. He complied.

This heading didn't quite work as we were heading straight toward
Blacktail Mountain, which was slightly higher than us.

15-year-old kid: "Uh, Walt, we're heading straight for that mountain.
Should I keep flying by the compass?

Me: "Yup." (I was looking for elk).

15-year-old kid: "UM, okay".

We get closer to Blacktail. And closer.

15-year-old kid: "Mr. Weaver, I really don't want to die today. Can I
turn the airplane?"

Me: "Yup. I don't want to die either. Go around it to the left."

Kid got a big smile on his face and turned the airplane. We skirted
Blacktail to the north, then turned south and went to Livingston.

I didn't find any elk. And I'm still wondering if he'd have flown the
airplane into Blacktail if I didn't tell him to turn. :)

Kid had a great time and is taking pilot lessons now.

--Walt


Dan Luke wrote:
...offers endless opportunities for screwing up the experience for them, as
I've demonstrated yet again.

My business partner's 21-yr. old son has been hinting around for a few years
that he wanted to try flying sometime. When he finally asked outright to
take a flight, I was happy to agree, especially since he would be bringing
along his supermodel-quality girlfriend.

So T_ and M_ showed up at the airport Saturday afternoon. T_ was interested
in everything that was happening on the ramp and M_ was stopping students
and flight instructors in mid-sentence as she walked by. The weather was
perfect and this was going to be great fun.

After the walkaround and passenger briefing, I got my pax headsetted and
buckled in and gave T_ a description of how the controls worked. I let him
steer on the long taxi out to RWY 36. Cleared for takeoff, I let him
control the yoke. He did fine on the rotation and climbout, so I let him
make the climbing 180 deg. left turn to our departure heading. He did that
fine, too. Once I got T_ trimmed out and flying level, I turned to M_ in
the back seat to ask how she was doing.

Ummm..., not so well: M_ had the look of someone who had just stared death
in the face.

" Doing OK, M_?"

"Uh, better now," said M_, attempting a brave smile. "That turn was a
little scary!"

What M_ wasn't saying, of course, was that she had just spent a few seconds
fearing for her life because an apparent lunatic had turned over control of
an itty bitty airplane to her virtually clueless boyfriend, who promptly put
it in a bank 500' from the ground.

M_ brightened up a bit as the flight went along but she mentioned the
scary departure turn a couple more times. I was cursing myself the whole
way. I had really screwed it up by doing a wholly inadequate job of
preparing my pax for what they were going to experience. As a result, I
somehow doubt that I will have the pleasure of M_'s company on any future
flights.

Lesson learned: tell your newbie pax everything that is going to happen in
advance. Be especially detailed about any plans for their controlling the
airplane, and find out if they are going to be uncomfortable with anything
you have planned.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

"Walt" wrote:

This heading didn't quite work as we were heading straight toward
Blacktail Mountain, which was slightly higher than us.

15-year-old kid: "Uh, Walt, we're heading straight for that mountain.
Should I keep flying by the compass?

Me: "Yup." (I was looking for elk).

15-year-old kid: "UM, okay".

Goin intro to cockpit management. Never assume that a more
experienced pilot is competent. If something seems odd don't dance
around the bush...state what you are thinking.

Ron Lee

Ron Lee writes:

Never assume that a more experienced pilot is competent.
If something seems odd don't dance around the bush ...
state what you are thinking.

Does that apply only in the cockpit, or in newsgroups as well?

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 22:49:25 +0000, Ron Lee wrote:

If something seems odd don't dance around the
bush...state what you are thinking.

The kid did that. It wasn't an immediate threat, so he accepted the
response. As the threat became more immediate, he inquired again.

He sounds very level-headed, in fact. I like the "I really don't want to
die today" comment. No yelling, but designed to get through to an
elk-gazing pilot.

- Andrew

Walt wrote:
15-year-old kid: "Uh, Walt, we're heading straight for that mountain.
Should I keep flying by the compass?

Me: "Yup." (I was looking for elk).


Walt - boy are you lazy and cheap. You sound like Tom Sawyer. Buy an
autopilot. ;-) ;-)

Geral

Walt wrote:
Great story, Dan.

I've never let a "newbie" handle the controls on takeoff -I'm too
paranoid--, but last summer I took a friend's 15-year-old son on a
flight. We took off out of Gallatin Field near Bozeman, MT and flew
west to the Missouri confluence near Three Forks. Once at altitude I
handed the controls over to him. He did great.



In my younger days, I had a job in a survey party, and spent three
summers in helicopters and bush planes. I never got to take the
controls... except one time.

I was in a Beaver floatplane with a pilot I had never met before, and
we spent the day moving gas drums to various small lakes. The Beaver
has a yoke attached to a central pedestal, and on the last leg of the
last flight the pilot mumbled something about doing his flight reports,
flipped the yoke over to my side, opened his clipboard and put his head
down. Well, I could handle this. I carefully steered straight and
level. There were some showers in front of us, and I turned right a bit
every so often to avoid them, but otherwise I thought I was on course.

After about 20 minutes, the pilot finished his work, looked up and
said "Where are we?" I had forgotten about the navigation part. This
area of Northern Alberta was nothing but tiny lakes, and navigation
consisted of moving your thumb along the map when passing over each
lake. I not only had not kept track, I was about 90 degrees off course
after avoiding the rain. Fortunately we did find ourselves and had
enough fuel to get back.

I never had another offer like that.

John Halpenny

"John Halpenny" wrote:

After about 20 minutes, the pilot finished his work, looked up and
said "Where are we?"

Haw!

Beauty.