Taking my wife up for the first time

Marco,

I just took my first passenger up today! I took a friend who is a student
pilot (I'm taking my wife next weekend).
Unfortunately, my first flight wasn't all that smooth.
Actually, the flight was fine, but the plane was a little quirky.
The plane literally came out of annual right before I flew it.
There were lots of little things that weren't quite right, but nothing
serious.
For example, when the mechanic lubed the throttle, he forgot to screw the
throttle-friction cap back on.
It was just hanging on the throttle rod.

Anyway, after a relatively uneventful preflight (little stuff like I said),
we taxied out and did our run up.
Did the run up, then did a clearing turn.
To my surprise, there was a plane on short final...no radio call or
anything!
I began to think maybe the radio wasn't working, and called for a radio
check...no answer
It was 7:00am, so maybe the plane that didn't use the radio was the only one
out there.

I decided to do a quick pattern and check if the radio worked by turning on
the pilot-controlled VASI lights.
Sure enough, the lights came on! It must have been that other plane!

In the mean time, I failed to notice that my friend was digging his nails
into his legs!
We decided to go to another nearby uncontrolled airport to shoot some
patterns.
Again, I saw more traffic, but heard nothing. I finally figured that my
transmitter was working, but receiver wasn't.
We kept an eagle-eye for traffic and announced our position at every turn.

When we got back I told my flight instructor (who I rent the plane from)
about COM1 not working.
He got in another plane and tried to contact me.
Sure enough. I told him I couldn't hear him on COM1, but COM2 was just
fine!

COM2???

Why didn't I think of that in the air?
Chalk it up to experience.

Even more embarassing, I got a call a few hours later saying that they found
the problem with COM1.
They turned the volume up.

Even more lessons learned.

In 50 hours of flying that plane, I never once had to touch the volume on
the radio.
I didn't even think of it.

Moral(s) of the story:
1. Make sure someone else flies the plane for an hour after its next annual
before me.
2. Check the volume.
3. Use COM2
4. If I had it to do over again, I would have fixed the problem on the
ground before taking it in the air.

I REALLY hope I never am that stupid again. Especially because next week I
am taking my wife up for the first time.
We're not just going around the patch, either.

Adam

P.S. Please don't chastise me. I realize how stupid I was!