Do you prefer solo or that more go?

Daleandee

Daleandee

Final Approach
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Dale Andee
Wondering what others think as to whether you enjoy flying with passengers vs flying yourself solo.

I do take passengers now & again and in our EAA chapter we fly Young Eagles (we have an event scheduled for next weekend). The YE flights are very rewarding and sometimes the young folks are rather humorous in their responses to the new sounds and sensations of flight.

But most of my hours are solo and I do enjoy the hours aloft with no particular place to go and no timeline as to when I have to be there (unless I'm headed to a fly-in event or trying to arrive before all the $100 burgers are gone).

PS: the weather here in Carolina is horrible this weekend ... :(
 
Try adding a poll.

I find it a lot more fun to fly with a passenger. I do currency stuff alone (stalls and other maneuvers), but other than that I feel it's a waste to fly by myself.
 
It depends....

on the airplane
on the mission
on my mood
on the potential passenger
on the weather

Having had a career where I always flew solo (F-15) and now one where I'm never solo (Delta); there are pros and cons. Every situation has it's merit IMO.
 
Just depends on my mood really. It’s more memorable with peeps.
 
Glider pilot, alone. But I do enjoy it when two or more aircraft are soaring in the area.
 
My current plane is a single seater, but even when I had a two seater I rarely had a passenger, probably less than 5% of the time.
 
Less than 20% of my flying time was solo. Approximately 80,000 miles with my wife in the right seat. :):):)

That non solo includes my PPL, COM and IFR training.
 
We were always going places, and flew a high wing so we could sight see all the way. Our two sons preferred very low, but we usually cruised at 5 top 8 thousand feet for smoother air and better glide distance.
 
My favorite part of owning a plane is sharing it with other people, whether that’s showing the fuel kids around it on the ramp and getting them to sit in it or brining a new person along for the ride.
 
Half Fast said:
I really enjoy taking along a passenger or two. I just wish they wouldn’t start sobbing when I’m on final.
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I do find the screaming rather distracting…


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I fly solo 95% of the time.
Actually the last 3 flights were with passengers.
My wife an I flew the 172 to breakfast 2 Sundays ago and watched the sun come up.
Last Saturday i flew with my buddy in his arrow as a passenger.
Then Sunday the 3 of us went to breakfast and again watched the sun rise, something my wife likes. I got to log .6 hrs in the arrow coming home.
I like watching the sun set at night.
I plan to fly solo tonight.
Easy to stay night current this time of year because I mostly land after dark.
 
HPSL said:
Glider pilot, alone. But I do enjoy it when two or more aircraft are soaring in the area.
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I almost never fly alone. Even with the glider it is very rare I will fly without another glider flying in the area with me.
Most of the rest of my flying is instruction.
Occasionally I might fly alone to reposition an aircraft or for a maintenance flight.

Brian
 
Wow, I have to say I was surprised when I checked my logbook and found out that fewer than 1/3 of my hours are solo! Between instructors, family, friends, Young Eagles, last second transports to another airport, etc. almost exactly 70% of my hours have somebody else in the plane!

What do I prefer? Don't get me wrong, the feeling of being all alone in the sky is lovely, but I enjoy sharing that wonderful feeling with others! From taking my wife to the Bahamas, to a co-worker and I running to Toronto for lunch, to having more experienced pilot next to me for my first Airventure arrival, to introducing kids to the incredible experience of flying, it's a joy to have others with me.

Currency flights, whether night or instrument are usually done solo, but that's more out of necessity.

ETA: My little co-pilot went up for his first ride at 2 months (and slept the WHOLE time!) As soon as he can leave his headset on, he'll come with me for currency flights!
 
Solo... it is my time to escape and forget about everything for a few hours. Hence my getting a 152

If I need to fly folks, I have access to a 172 and Piper Warrior... but, have only used this once in the past few years.
 
flyingpreacher said:
Wow, I have to say I was surprised when I checked my logbook and found out that fewer than 1/3 of my hours are solo! Between instructors, family, friends, Young Eagles, last second transports to another airport, etc. almost exactly 70% of my hours have somebody else in the plane!
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I never logged solo time, so I have no idea what the ratio is. I do know I once flew with almost 150 passengers, but that's not relevant. (Refugees in Vietnam.)

I flew a LOT of solo hours between Michigan and Minnesota and again between Minnesota and Michigan when I changed jobs. I like flying alone, but I also enjoy having someone along. And then, I have more than 3,500 hours as an instructor, and passing on my love of flying is a joy by itself.
 
Depends on the mood of the day,but I do enjoy solo cross countries.
 
Solo, hands down. The peace and quiet restores my sanity, needed due to all the people I leave on the ground.
 
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brcase said:
I almost never fly alone. Even with the glider it is very rare I will fly without another glider flying in the area with me.
Most of the rest of my flying is instruction.
Occasionally I might fly alone to reposition an aircraft or for a maintenance flight.

Brian
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I interpreted the question as being inside the aircraft. I enjoy soaring with others who are PiC of thier aircraft, and I don't mind recieving instruction. But for me soaring is very much a hands-on 100% of thr time activity. Me and the sky.
 
HPSL said:
I interpreted the question as being inside the aircraft. I enjoy soaring with others who are PiC of thier aircraft, and I don't mind recieving instruction. But for me soaring is very much a hands-on 100% of thr time activity. Me and the sky.
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The think I like about flying with other gliders is they are often (not always) sharing conditions information with me. Even if they are not I can observe what they are doing and what kind of decisions they are making. Often the idea is for me to make a better decision to get ahead of them. Just as often I make the wrong decision and end up falling behind.

Brian
 
brcase said:
The think I like about flying with other gliders is they are often (not always) sharing conditions information with me. Even if they are not I can observe what they are doing and what kind of decisions they are making. Often the idea is for me to make a better decision to get ahead of them. Just as often I make the wrong decision and end up falling behind.

Brian
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I hear you. And some of my fellow aviators are not certificated.

Like the gorgeous Red-tailed Hawk I recently shared a thermal with.
 
I really enjoy taking people that are excited about the flight. But I also like a solo flight every now and then. It’s definitely a totally different experience for me. Even if I’ve been flying a lot, if I haven’t had a solo for awhile I try to make time for one.
 
I really enjoy solo flight but last weekend was another one of our EAA Young Eagles rallies. The looks on the faces and the joy of those young, future pilots is very heart warming in a world gone crazy with folks forgetting how to be kind to each other. It would be a much better world if more folks could simply enjoy a great day at an airport and get to take an airplane ride.

Flying off of a turf field, touring the nearby lakes, landing and having a bowl or two of the five types of chili available along with a Nathan's hot dog and a cold drink on a fall afternoon with light winds and cool temps. The town mayor was in attendance and unbeknownst to me until after the fact was that his fifteen year old daughter was my second flight of the event ... :)
 
Can I take the it depends answer? 99% of the time my wife is reading a book or sleeping, and the kiddo is buried in a game on his iPad. I really flying with friends that don’t fly much to just chat.
 
i honestly don't know, i hated soloing during my ppl and IR, was ssoooooo boring
but outside of training, i don't mind the peaceful flights. I do like it when another pilot comes along so i can just look out the windows
 
Sometimes non-aviation passengers are a pain and I’d have preferred to fly solo…

They’re late to arrive the airport, interrupt the smooth flow of the preflight, bring too many carry ons, try to close the door before being instructed and/or supervised, can’t find half of their seatbelt, need help with the headset, talk too much (even following polite instructions not to during climb out, and approaches to land), can’t figure out how to adjust their seat. And worse, on bumpy hot days, threaten to or actually vomit.

But other times, passengers are great! Especially aviators.
 
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I enjoy solo flight in the RV-6. Solo, it is aerobatic and a dream to fly. The RV-10 is a blast to fly as well, but I like to go places and take passengers in it.
 
I love to take non-pilots flying. Even my worst passenger was a worthwhile experience for both her and me (and that was quite a story!). But it's totally dependent on several factors like aircraft, mission, weather and time constraints. Sometimes I just don't want to be bothered and would rather fly solo, not talking to anyone except minimal radio calls.
 
I am in the middle on solo or not.

But one solo flight from Denver back to Gallup, Wx over the Rockies clear and a million, FL220, smooth as sitting in your living room, snow plumes coming off the mountain tops, I really wished I had some passengers to share the view with.

Then a few times in Alaska, flying the Navajo, solo, at around 25 ft agl at cruise power. I could see salmon in the river, bears looking at me as I whizz over head, and watch ducks ducking under the water trying to get away from me while listening to Bach, Beethoven and Mozart on the ADF. I only did that when I had no passengers, no revenue on board.

Fond memories.
 
wouldn't have chosen to become a pilot outright if solo flight wasn't legal. That said, all the airplanes owned during the good old days (pre-2020), were owned for a pax centric mission, and I look fondly on that chapter of my life.
 
Zeldman said:
I really wished I had some passengers to share the view with.
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Excellent wish! We’ve all had the same quality of views. Unique, greatly appreciated, and remembered forever by pilots. I’m not sure as many non-flyers would share the same long remembered emotional connections with visuals we pilots can experience.

The most memorable and amazing visual event I was fortunate enough to witness occurred while flying alone, northbound late at night between cloud layers. Outside black as ink, cruising level in smooth clear air, known to be clear only because of the appearance of the nav lights.

An unknown whitish glow in the lower cloud layer became visible off the right wingtip, slowly brightening. I was witnessing the moon preparing to rise up out of the cloud deck, and into what turned out to be a fairly narrow vertical region of clear air sandwiched between the two layers.

The view between the layers soon took my breath away. The appearance of the clouds illuminated by the moonlight was surreal. The lower cloud tops were puffy cumulus, and the plane was above them. Up ahead the puffy cloud tops of the lower layer had grown taller, stretching above my altitude. It soon became evident some minor heading deviations would be necessary to remain visual in this temporary supernatural world of moonlight, clouds, shadows and a personal flying machine.

To enjoy this scene to the fullest, I lowered the instrument lighting way down to practically off, and hand flew a serpentine track down the middles of these cloud canyons, in and out of the shadows, assuring myself this amazing experience would be seared into my memory forever.

As quickly as the moon rose from the bottom it soon climbed into the higher layer, then disappeared. The distance between layers was probably no more than a total of two or three moon diameters of width.
 
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