Her first time...

Half Fast

Half Fast

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Half Fast
Well, I finally convinced Mrs. Half Fast to go for a flight with me yesterday morning. She did a discovery flight a few months back, but this was her first flight with me as pilot and we had a perfect day for it. CAVU with almost no wind. We spent about an hour and a half sight-seeing at 2500', overflew our house and some other landmarks, and landed back at X04 (Apopka) around noon.

She had fun and enjoyed the flight, though the loaner headset was uncomfortable for her so we'll have to shop for something a bit better. She did close her eyes when I was on short final, however... :)

I was on flight following the whole time and Orlando Approach was pretty busy, keeping up an almost constant stream of calls over the radio and sometimes making it difficult for the two of us to talk. They helped me several times with traffic, though, so it was worth having to sift through all the chatter. There were lots of folks flying yesterday and I was very glad for the help.

Overall a great flight, and we're looking forward to lots more flying time together.
 
Half Fast said:
Overall a great flight, and we're looking forward to lots more flying time together.
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You ought to consider having her undergo a "Pinchhitter", or similar course. She would get some training in order to work the radios and fly the plane if something happened to you.
 
With all that chatter on the radio, did it make your wife nervous thinking that the skies were buzzing with planes all around you?
 
mscard88 said:
You ought to consider having her undergo a "Pinchhitter", or similar course. She would get some training in order to work the radios and fly the plane if something happened to you.
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I've considered it, and also for my son. I don't think she's quite ready for that yet, and getting her to reach the controls will be difficult. She's only 4'11". I'm 5'3" and in the Tecnam I have to use one of Sporty's boosters so that I can reach the pedals and see over the cowling, so she'll have an even tougher time. Also, if she's anything like I am, it'll take quite a few hours to learn to set down a light sport. (Folks our age can be slow learners.)

My son, on the other hand, would love to learn and would probably catch on in no time.
 
Cluemeister said:
With all that chatter on the radio, did it make your wife nervous thinking that the skies were buzzing with planes all around you?
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No, not really - she didn't understand most of what was being said and she just let me worry about it. When we had a traffic call-out I told her that was for us and where to look.

I was running ForeFlight and using a Stratux box, so I could see most of the traffic on the screen and that helped.

Back at Apopka there were quite a few planes in the area, including a Cub who was apparently NORDO, wasn't in the pattern, and appeared to be just flying around within a couple of miles of the airport and at close to TPA. We were all just trying to stay out of his way. Made things a bit entertaining for a few minutes.
 
mscard88 said:
One way to find out!
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Yeah, whenever he's back in town for a while. His company is moving him around to different military bases right now. He's an IT guy and his company has a contract to upgrade several USN and USMC bases. He's at Blount Island for the rest of the month.
 
Good on ya! I love having my wife flying with me. Break her in slowly with small tasks while you explain the radio chatter so she understands what is being said. I have my wife monitoring the traffic on the iPad, changing freqs, and occasionally talking to atc. We’ll get her a pinch hitter course soon.
 
JCranford said:
Good on ya! I love having my wife flying with me. Break her in slowly with small tasks while you explain the radio chatter so she understands what is being said. I have my wife monitoring the traffic on the iPad, changing freqs, and occasionally talking to atc. We’ll get her a pinch hitter course soon.
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That's the plan. Once she's comfortable I'll get her to monitor traffic and wx for me on her tablet, call out checklists, etc.
 
My wife's first task was following along on the sectional, and finding our location in the line when I tuned in a VOR and gave her the heading from it. She became a good radio listener on frequent breakfast runs with friends, and will sometimes talk to them but not to ATC.

She does remind me when a call is for us if I don't respond quickly. And she's a world class traffic spotter!
 
Rock n' roll. Having the other half along makes the whole thing even more enjoyable. Congrats.
 
All this taking the significant other girlies flying this weekend! Fun!

Hopefully the girly pilots took their dudes flying too! Haven’t seen those posts yet, if they did.
 
My wife has not flown with me since we met and married in 1984. I have flown off and on our whole married life. However, now that we have four kids spread around the country (and one with two young children), we may have reached the point where she is about to get in my airplane...
 
Some of my most favorite flights have been the ones that my wife flew with me. Great memories. Unfortunately, she doesn’t do it as often as I’d like.
 
I feel bad for you guys with a wife that won't fly with you. My wife goes with me regularly. She won't go just for giggles, but then I'm usually traveling when I'm flying, not just flying around the patch. She wasn't sure about it at first as she's a little motion sensitive. She quickly found out it was mostly better than driving. Mostly as she doesn't like the bumps down low which we often get on arrival. Otherwise it's faster and she can read (when she's not napping), which she can't do in the car.

IMC doesn't bother her in the least including approaches and breaking out fairly low.

She has no interest in learning to fly herself though.
 
My first wife doesn't like flying...I can't say I blame her, it's a really slow way to go right now. When I get into a newer, faster airplane I think she might come around. If I can say "1.5 hours to College Park" or "3 hours to Kissimmee", I think she'll get it. If not, there's always wife #2...
 
My wife's first flight with me (or just about any small plane and she was afraid to fly even in airliners) we hit a turkey buzzard and punched a big hole in the wing. Still she decided she'd go to Oshkosh the next summer (not the smoothest ride), and by the time she was through there she was ready to take lessons.
 
wayne said:
I feel bad for you guys with a wife that won't fly with you. My wife goes with me regularly. She won't go just for giggles, but then I'm usually traveling when I'm flying, not just flying around the patch.
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Mine will fly local only. She insisted on a flight my son and I were taking years ago that I HIGHLY recommended she not come along on (high west Texas winds and TB). Was able to keep things smooth on the way to a high school basketball game that took 1:45 in the Tiger that everyone driving spend 7 hours getting to ... the return trip had a smooth but brutal headwind. Ended up with some pretty strong TB near home and was forced to drop her off at the Class C, fly to my field and pick up vehicle and return to the Class C to go get her. She gets frightened fairly easily. OTOH, have taken her on tons of local flights at sunset and she loves them ... but the only question ... every ... single ... time ...is "will there be turbulence?"
 
danhagan said:
Mine will fly local only.
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Well, better than nothing.

I had to really query one day about my wife's motion sensitivity. We were on a boat on the Thames at the dock and a large boat went by, so we were rocking all over the place. Didn't bother her a bit. She can't read in a car without getting nauseous. Coming down in the afternoon bumps she doesn't like it, more than I don't like; I just find it annoying. Finally found out that in the plane she doesn't like when it drops. The up part is just annoying, but the down part bothers her.

Otherwise she really enjoys flying with me, but we have to be going somewhere. No flights around Atlanta, or going out when I shoot instrument approaches. She has been on a couple of Angel Flight missions, but that was for another purpose. Several years ago she wanted to visit her mother in Sarasota, so I found an Angel Flight going down that way. After we dropped off the patient we flew back up to Sarasota and visited her mother for the afternoon and then flew on home. Another was after visiting our daughter in Lexington and we flew up to Cincinnati to pick up a patient and family.

I'm quite thrilled she likes it as I get to fly more that way. :cool: Now with the kids in college we are starting to take weekend trips. We head out a little early from work and hop in the plane and go. :D

Take off by 3pm and we can have dinner in New Orleans or Miami that evening, and not a late dinner.

Heck she even thought the AOPA fly-in Santa Fe would be nice (she has an uncle living near there), except it's too close to when we get back from a two week vacation.

Yep, I'm a happy camper. :)
 
Only had my GF on one flight so far since the checkride. A quick 20 minute flight over her childhood home.
She was ok with the bumps, and only grabbed the armrest when we were coming in on final.
I (luckily) greased the landing and said, "see, it's ok"
She said "well we looked like we were sideways for a minute"
I said, "yeah, the winds can rock you around...but don't worry, I've actually slid it sideways before on the landing"
Relieved that the plane could handle such an event, she said "oh, that's good to know"
I said "what, that I screw up my landings?"
we both just laughed....
but her laugh became nervous and died out quickly
When I looked back over at her, we busted out laughing again.

It is indeed great to have her with me.
 
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