New Passengers, was: Intercom Question

Thanks to everyone for the good advice pertaining to the Piper Warrior in
the flying club I just joined, that has a four place intercom with only the
front seats wired. When the owner gets back from Florida I'll ask him to
please consider wiring the back seats. I've printed out the Sigtronics
installation guide and wiring diagram for him, and I looked behind the
instrument panel and verified the wires are there tied up.
Anyway, my friend Dan from work and his wife Bonnie had never been in an
airplane of any kind in their entire lives, and Dan approached me about
giving them a ride. Of course I was honored. I took them up yesterday.
They arrived at Brennand Airport, Neenah, Wisconsin while I was
preflighting the airplane. Dan was very nervous and followed me around
asking a hundred questions while I preflighted. I was slow and
methodical, and explained to him everything I was looking at while
answering his questions. His wife in the meantime seemed pretty excited,
and spent the time chatting with my wife, Janet.
We got everyone strapped in, and fired her up. I'd bought a pair of "Y"
cords from Radio Shack, and had them wearing headsets plugged into the
audio jacks in the front seat so they could listen. I explained
everything I was doing during the runup, then we took off. Dan still had
a hundred more questions once we were airborne and cruising, he shouted
out what he wanted to know, and Janet and I talked normally into our mics
to answer him. Definitely a hassle, and I hope the owner will be willing
to wire up the back seat intercom positions so we don't have that to deal
with again in the future.
We flew Dan and Bonnie over their house, and they both were very excited
to see it. Then we went north of Shawano to overfly their cabin on a lake
in the northwoods. It was beside a very pretty little lake, I hope Janet
and I get an invitation to visit it with them someday. Then we landed at
Shawano's little airport which is situated beside side a good-sized lake,
parked the plane and walked over to a little bar/restaurant called "The
Launch Pad" to get some dinner. Being a Friday night, the place was very
busy, so we ordered then waited a good hour, with Dan grilling me on
everything I went through to get my license, what training was like etc.
He went to go to the bathroom and Bonnie quietly told us that on the way
out to the airport to meet us, Dan was almost terrified. He'd had to stop
the car and take some deep breaths before turning down the road to the
airport. She on the other hand said she was very excited, and according
to her, she had been trying for years to get him to get his courage up to
try flying so they could take an airline trip to Hawaii. By now Dan also
was very excited, and kept repeating he couldn't believe how cool flying
was. After an hour waiting and no food, the sun was beginning to get low
to the horizon. I went up the the counter and told the fellow running the
restaurant we were out of time, and please could we either have our food
right then "to go", or we'd have to cancel our order. They boxed our food
and we carried it out to the plane, fired it up and headed for home.
Earlier we'd cruised about 2000 feet agl, this time I took us up to 4500
agl, and we flew right over Appleton on the way back to Brennand. Bonnie
and Dan were astounded how far you could see from that high. On the other
side of ATW's Class D airspace, we descended and then landed. Dan and
Bonnie were both just esctatic about the flight, and said they can't wait
to do it again. I walked up behind Dan at work this morning to hear him
telling another co-worker about the flight, so maybe I'll have another
passenger soon!
Scott Wilson

Another option is to just buy an inexpensive portable intercomm if the
owner is not interested. You'll often get more technology (iso, crew,
external inputs, etc) from a portable than an older built in.

You've got handcuffs on your hands and an anchor on your hiney? Offer to
swap the owner an hour or two in return for your labor in wiring the damned
thing up yourself.

Jim



wrote in message ...

When the owner gets back from Florida I'll ask him to
please consider wiring the back seats.

Definitely a hassle, and I hope the owner will be willing
to wire up the back seat intercom positions so we don't have that to deal
with again in the future.

On 13-Aug-2005, "RST Engineering" wrote:

You've got handcuffs on your hands and an anchor on your hiney? Offer to
swap the owner an hour or two in return for your labor in wiring the
damned
thing up yourself.

Jim

Now that was uncharacteristically rude of you. I hope you were just having
a bad day. Actually I was going to offer to do that, but I was unsure of
the regulations for me to do this since I don't have an A&P license. I
certainly wouldn't presume to work on the airplane without the owner's
permission, so I'll wait until he's back to ask him. I also have to guess
that he might be uncomfortable with having me, with no license, do ANY work
on his aircraft, regardless of my experience/capabilities. Wiring it would
be simplicity to me, I am a former USAF avionics tech (10 years, five on
F-4Cs and F-4Es, and five on C-130Es and C-141Bs) and work on
wiring/electrical systems on firetrucks now.

Scott Wilson

wrote:

Jim

Now that was uncharacteristically rude of you.

Hah!

"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...
Now that was uncharacteristically rude of you.

Hah!

My thoughts exactly. I found the quoted text to be *entirely*
characteristic of the person who wrote it.

and said they can't wait
to do it again.


You did good!

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

On 14-Aug-2005, Thomas Borchert wrote:


You did good!

Thank you! I'm hoping Dan's telling other guys at work about his flight
will get me some more passengers to introduce to the world of flying light
aircraft. I've been inviting lots of people, but most folks seem afraid of
giving it a try. Another guy who works at the same place used to give
people rides and delighted in trying to scare them silly. Thankfully he no
longer flies, or so I've been told, but the damage has been done. I hope to
show people that flying can be safe, sedate, and fun, contrary what this
other guy has led them to believe.
Scott Wilson