Tasks for non-pilot pax?

Pi1otguy

Pi1otguy

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Fox McCloud
What tasks do you give your non-pilot passengers?
Part of the goal is to ease into a basic description of what's going on and possibly gain a second pair of eyes over time. I'm thinking something simple like remind me to update the DG every 15 min or such.
 
They're my poor man's heading bug.
 
Most non pilot passengers don't like to do anything....
If you do ask them to help just give them the yoke and let them fly the plane for awhile....
Nobody wants to remind you to set a DG. LOL!
 
I ask them to hand me my sandwich, or to turn on/off my GoPros. :cool:
 
I only have them do 2 things: look for traffic and point out anything they feel is out of the ordinary (like flames, wing falling off, kid hanging on the wing, you know the usual stuff). The one exception is my wife. She likes to handle the radio freq changes we get enroute.
 
Encourage them to take pictures. I also explain to them what I’m doing if they are so inclined and have any interest. I will also let them take the yoke and get a feel for the plane once we are all trimmed out and stable.
 
Pretty much all of my pax were just interested in taking pictures. I usually don’t give them any tasks.
 
Anyone other than my wife: Take photos, don't talk during taxi, takeoff and landing or while talking to ATC (harder than I thought to get them to comply)...

My wife: Keep an eye on the dog, set squawk code, squawk ident when prompted by ATC, spot the airport (she always finds it before I do), on very long flights, she even takes control in cruise for a few minutes when I want to eat and drink something and just be a second pair of eyes for traffic and second pair of ears for what ATC has to say.
 
I ask all my passengers to help me watch for traffic after I show them how to open the door and their seat belts.
 
Most passengers, nothing. My significant other flies often enough with me that she’ll listen in on the radio for traffic advisories and help me spot traffic (as long as she isn’t sleeping, or taking pictures). I may also have a passenger change out my headset batteries when they go flat.
 
I asked one to take the controls while I used the ‘facilities’. He thought I was kidding, longer flight.

Sometimes just simply holding a chart for quick access or an airport diagram is enough. If non-pilots, I don’t ask for much.
 
I ask them to read the POH to me because that's the instructions for how to fly this thing. :)

Years ago, when I had students, I liked to ask them to find the airport as I had sight lost of it ...
 
With anyone, assist with watching traffic. With the girlfriend, I loop her in to any decisions I make along the way, and I ask her for a reminder for gear if I'm flying something that needs that.
 
Lean the seat back and close your eyes.
 
There are two kinds of passengers in my plane: non-frequent (mostly everyone), and frequent (my kids or my wife). Infrequent passengers I ask to do nothing. Frequent passengers remind me to switch tanks, look for traffic, and look straight down for ground during an IFR approach in the soup.
 
Gary Ward said:
I ask all my passengers to help me watch for traffic after I show them how to open the door and their seat belts.
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tsts4 said:
I only have them do 2 things: look for traffic and point out anything they feel is out of the ordinary (like flames, wing falling off, kid hanging on the wing, you know the usual stuff). The one exception is my wife. She likes to handle the radio freq changes we get enroute.
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Like these guys said, look for traffic. Hold my tablet.
Sometimes, hold my beer and watch this :)
 
I tell the passengers to look for traffic and play with the EFB on a spare iPad. Sometimes I teach the passenger in the copilot seat to follow me in the scan of the instruments on longer flights. Sometimes I quiz them, "how's my altitude/fuel/vacuum/oil/airspeed/etc.?" Mostly I just tell them my hand signal for "shut up" and "are you going to puke?"
 
Male pax: "Sit down, shut up, and hold on."
Female pax: "Gentler, not so rough."
 
My wife I have hold the tablet, look for traffic and let me know if anything on the ADSB in is close. Generally new passengers just look for traffic and enjoy the ride.
 
I always hand them the checklists and read to me. They feel more involved that way
 
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