ebykowsky
Cleared for Takeoff
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2012
- Messages
- 1,405
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Display name:
goalstop
Yesterday, I got my parents out to KCUB for my first flight with passengers at the end of the day with temps around 65F and absolutely no clouds or turbulence. And the flight was one of the most enjoyable I've had in awhile, and also ended up being one of the biggest learning experiences so far in my training. One thing they don't teach you in flight school is how to deal with unruly pax! :wink2: First of all, it was my slowest climb yet, as with me weighing 200lbs, my dad at 235, and my mom weighing in at *REDACTED*, plus 50gal. of fuel since a few people cancelled before our flight, we were just below max takeoff weight. At 80kts, we got around 500fpm, but with the 5000ft. runway, this wasn't that big of a deal. On climbout, I switched over to approach for flight following, and was told to squawk 4288 
I told approach that I was unable to do so, and he quickly gave me 4233 instead. On the subsequent call from ATC, my mom started talking to me about something, and that was the first time I've been able to yell at my mom to be quiet 
!
We got out over Lake Murray, where we live, and I dropped down to 1000 AGL and was able to give a great sightseeing tour over the lake, going by our house, seeing some of our friends' houses, passing over plenty of sailboats, and doing a quick jaunt over the dam. Halfway through the tour, though, the right window flies open suddenly and my dad has his head out of the window. He gets it closed after a few seconds, and when I ask him what the heck he was doing, he says, "I thought the door latch on the outside was open, so I opened the window to try to shut it from the outside so I didn't fall out
I think my freezing mom in the back seat was far more ticked off than I was, especially after she had to tell him every minute not to touch anything... He'd already bumped my rudders a couple of times before, but he's a big guy, so understandable. After that, I decided to do a landing at Columbia Metro in order to challenge myself a bit with a class C and made a really nice touch and go. We jaunted right back over to Downtown and took an approach right over the city for 13. All in all, an awesome experience to be remembered with the parents who supported me through this whole experience. Also a great lesson in handling passengers. My mom said that she really enjoyed the flight and would love to do it again sometime, and my dad said "it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I don't feel any need to do it again." Oh well, I'll be trying to drag them on a flight down to Charleston over the summer for dinner anyway.
I told approach that I was unable to do so, and he quickly gave me 4233 instead. On the subsequent call from ATC, my mom started talking to me about something, and that was the first time I've been able to yell at my mom to be quiet !We got out over Lake Murray, where we live, and I dropped down to 1000 AGL and was able to give a great sightseeing tour over the lake, going by our house, seeing some of our friends' houses, passing over plenty of sailboats, and doing a quick jaunt over the dam. Halfway through the tour, though, the right window flies open suddenly and my dad has his head out of the window. He gets it closed after a few seconds, and when I ask him what the heck he was doing, he says, "I thought the door latch on the outside was open, so I opened the window to try to shut it from the outside so I didn't fall out
I think my freezing mom in the back seat was far more ticked off than I was, especially after she had to tell him every minute not to touch anything... He'd already bumped my rudders a couple of times before, but he's a big guy, so understandable. After that, I decided to do a landing at Columbia Metro in order to challenge myself a bit with a class C and made a really nice touch and go. We jaunted right back over to Downtown and took an approach right over the city for 13. All in all, an awesome experience to be remembered with the parents who supported me through this whole experience. Also a great lesson in handling passengers. My mom said that she really enjoyed the flight and would love to do it again sometime, and my dad said "it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I don't feel any need to do it again." Oh well, I'll be trying to drag them on a flight down to Charleston over the summer for dinner anyway.
