Spousal checkride -- any suggestions?

Thank you so much -- these are all great suggestions that I will
incorporate into the experience. Wish us well.


Eric Ross wrote:
I recently received my license and I am taking my somewhat nervous wife
up for the first time. I am aiming for a clear, reasonably smooth day.
Any suggestions for making this flight as positive as possible for her?

Thanks much,
Eric Ross

The first time I took my wife up flying, all I heard was "You're fifty feet
below altitude...you're half a mile right of course...you're in a half-ball
skid...trim for airspeed..."

Then again, she IS a CFI ...


{;-)


Jim


Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

Being as I had my first flight several months ago, I too, was somewhat
nervous. However, I had complete faith in my husband. He, however, had
gotten his license when he was 16, before he even had a driver's license.

Knowing he had been flying for a long time, eased my fears as did my trust
in him.

Just tell her to relax, and if she starts to become scared, to bear down
with her stomach and believe it or not, just like a roller coaster, your
fear just seems to go away.

Flying in a small plane is just like an airline, and so much more fun.

Best wishes

Winona Anton


I recently received my license and I am taking my somewhat nervous wife
up for the first time. I am aiming for a clear, reasonably smooth day.
Any suggestions for making this flight as positive as possible for her?

"Paul Anton" wrote in message
...
Being as I had my first flight several months ago, I too, was somewhat
nervous. However, I had complete faith in my husband. He, however, had
gotten his license when he was 16, before he even had a driver's license.

Knowing he had been flying for a long time, eased my fears as did my trust
in him.

Some people ask me before they go up for the first time:
"Is it safe?"

I just shrug my shoulders and say I haven't crashed so far. They
think about that, think about the time I've been flying and how
often, and a look of realisation comes over their face. Then if they're
interested, I sometimes go into what are the main causes of fatal
accidents and how none of those factors apply on that particular day.

Paul

That brings back memories! I remember when I got my PPL, my wife didn't
want to go up with me at first. I think she and most women suffer somewhat
from "Carolyn Bessette Kennedy Syndrome", (fear of flying with your
husband). I took a few friends first and they gave her good reports, so
eventually she went up. Pick a CAVU day. I remember one flight out of TOA
in So Cal it was kinda smoggy and my wife didn't like it cause she couldn't
see that well, so I had to return to the airport and let her out. So what
you might feel comfortable with as PIC, your wife/passengers might not. My
wife doesn't like night flying either and now that I'm instrument rated, she
has no desire to go into the clouds. It doesn't bother me though, cause
flying is supposed to be about fun, not making people uncomfortable. We've
had some fun flights, most notably Oahu Hawaii. Good Luck to you!
Robert


P.S. Tell your wife you are going to buy her a (Sporty's) Little John with
the Lady-J adapter for Xmas. That should go over real good too! Ha ha!



"Eric Ross" wrote in message
...
I recently received my license and I am taking my somewhat nervous wife
up for the first time. I am aiming for a clear, reasonably smooth day.
Any suggestions for making this flight as positive as possible for her?

Thanks much,
Eric Ross

Robert Easton wrote:

My wife doesn't like night flying either and now that I'm instrument
rated, she
has no desire to go into the clouds.

I finally had my wife in clouds for a nontrivial amount of time a couple of
months ago. I wasn't cotton ball (which would just be dull for her, I'd
expect), but in-and-out near the tops. I could have gone above, and I also
knew that there was enough room below the ceiling for VFR if necessary.

But she liked it. It was as beautiful to her as it has always been to me.

It was also interesting explaining the instrument scan to her, almost
serving as a mini-lesson for myself.

She's pretty comfortable at this point, though. She's even taken a few
lessons herself, and had no problem using a camera as I did steep turns
over our house.

- Andrew

Eric Ross wrote in message ...
I recently received my license and I am taking my somewhat nervous wife
up for the first time. I am aiming for a clear, reasonably smooth day.
Any suggestions for making this flight as positive as possible for her?

Thanks much,
Eric Ross

Hope yours goes better than this:
Just after I got my PPL I took my wife up to the airport for her
first flight with me, we crammed into the mighty C152, and after the
runup and instruction from the tower to hold short, we watched a
Cessna 180 come in for a landing. "See, honey, how easy this is!"
Whoops! The C180 caught a gust and crashed from about 10 ft off
the runway, bent wing and the whole ugly mess closing the runway.
Fortunately, no one was hurt (except, perhaps, the 180 pilot's pride).
"Heh, heh, heh... Let's try this tomorrow"; and we taxied back to
the FBO.
Actual flight the next day went without incident.

Had a similar experience at BED. Was taking my wife for some
sight-seeing (it was our first or second time out). During our taxi,
the ground controller announced that all traffic must come to a stop.
SHe asked, "Why did he say that?" I responded with, "I believe there
was just a crash, and we will not be doing any flying today." Turns out
a pilot lost an engine on take-off, but somehow managed to make it back,
and crashed on landing. Pilot and pax were a bit shaken, but were fine.
(BTW, my wife is fine with flying as long as we're actually going
somewhere faster and with less hassle than driving. My 7 year old rides
shotgun, so mom is relegated to the back seat.)

smackey wrote:
Eric Ross wrote in message ...

I recently received my license and I am taking my somewhat nervous wife
up for the first time. I am aiming for a clear, reasonably smooth day.
Any suggestions for making this flight as positive as possible for her?

Thanks much,
Eric Ross


Hope yours goes better than this:
Just after I got my PPL I took my wife up to the airport for her
first flight with me, we crammed into the mighty C152, and after the
runup and instruction from the tower to hold short, we watched a
Cessna 180 come in for a landing. "See, honey, how easy this is!"
Whoops! The C180 caught a gust and crashed from about 10 ft off
the runway, bent wing and the whole ugly mess closing the runway.
Fortunately, no one was hurt (except, perhaps, the 180 pilot's pride).
"Heh, heh, heh... Let's try this tomorrow"; and we taxied back to
the FBO.
Actual flight the next day went without incident.


--
Remove "2PLANES" to reply.

On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 10:59:22 -0700, Eric Ross
wrote:

I recently received my license and I am taking my somewhat nervous wife
up for the first time. I am aiming for a clear, reasonably smooth day.
Any suggestions for making this flight as positive as possible for her?

Thanks much,
Eric Ross

Yes, I'm in the same situation. Nervous wife, inner ear problems (can
get airsick) plus, her ears clog and hurt her when altitude increases.
She can feel discomfort just going up hills in the car.

I picked a windless day for the first flight and tried very hard to
keep all turns extremely gentle. I explained every turn and every
situation we would encounter. When we approached the airport I told
her what was happening and explained what the tower was telling us.

Turned out, even the tiny dip of the wing for the gentlest of turns
scared her. She was thinking "Oh god, there goes the wing down, it's
going to continue to go down and we'll end up upside down then CBD
(Crash Burn Die).

She was extremely reluctant to move her seat up close to the
instrument panel because she did not want to touch anything and cause
CBD.

She also was unnerved a bit by my explanation of the cockpit emergency
procedures, but I felt it was necessary to go through everything.

She's been up twice now and casually mentions it to friends, says it
was cool.

Both flights were limited by her ears hurting though. I heard her
talking on the phone with our son last night mentioning that I'd gone
flying in the evening and that she didn't go because there was some
wind and she did not want to spoil the flight by puking all over the
nice plane. ;-)

Corky Scott

We took the flight on Sunday. The whole experience went well but not
completely smooth.

My wife is disabled so I have to help her into the plane. She bumped
her head on the door frame when I helped her a bit excessively--ouch. I
was thinking, well this is over before we even started. I asked her if
she wanted to stop, she said to continue. After we settled into the
cockpit she suddently asked "what's this, what's that?" I had to do a
full instrument intro to her. I was thrilled. She was extremely
interested.

Before taxi I checked the intercom. It seemed to work fine. We did the
runup and takeoff very smoothly. With the full engine noise she had
trouble hearing me. The intercom squelch didnot work very well and
picked up the noise as well as our voices. The rest of the flight was
"blah blah blah. What did you say? I said BLAH BLAH BLAH"
Once we were at cruise, she noticed that the instrument panel was too
high and she couldn't see out the view out front. Then when she tried
to look out the window the excessively high shoulder strap was in her
face. Since we were at cruise I removed the strap. The rest of the
flight I did a lot of shallow S turns to show her the views.
We flew over our house on the way and back from the Columbia River
Gorge. She enjoyed the sight. I should mention the weather was
perfectly clear, sunny, and the morning air was still smooth. We had a
great view of Bonneville dam with flood gates wide open.

As the flight continued the intercom became increasingly worse. Since
we could only talk by shouting or using sign language we decided to head
back home.

Afterwards, as she was rubbing her head, she said that she felt very
safe with me flying(in contrast to my driving the car); I acted very
professionally and when I flew without her she would not worry as much.
She also, is willing to fly again with me(maybe with a bike helmet on
during loading) and despite the difficulties enjoyed flying. Her final
comment was the she was very impressed with the landing. Actually it
was a bit fast and long, but it was very smooth.

I found out later at the FBO that the airplane we flew was notorious for
its intercom.

We will do one more local flight to work out the bugs and then do a
cross-country to visit a friend we haven't seen in a couple of years.



Eric Ross wrote:
I recently received my license and I am taking my somewhat nervous wife
up for the first time. I am aiming for a clear, reasonably smooth day.
Any suggestions for making this flight as positive as possible for her?

Thanks much,
Eric Ross