Does your spouse have a clue

"Fly, yes. Land, no."

As someone else said, I'd bet she'd walk away from a landing, but we might be calling about Hull insurance. Although if she'd not a named pilot, would they sleeze their way out of reimbursement?
 
Lisa could land, if she's not also incapacitated.

She started with a mini-pinch course in a Cherokee 180. CFI did the radios and he "says" he wasn't manipulating the controls on the last two landings.

She liked it so much she started on her PPL. She's solo'd, and done one long XC. But she's stalled out on the pesky written exam. I think she'll stay in the "couple hours of dual a year" camp for a while.

So, I think she could land my plane if I was incapacitated. And I would HAVE to be incapacitated to let it happen. :)
 
Margy started in on her pilot's license after her first Oshkosh trip (which was her third and longest trip in the plane).
 
My wife would have a chance. She can hold straight and level, make turns, program the GPS, talk on the radio, switch freqs, engage the autopilot, and work ForeFlight. We've been discussing doing some landings.
 
My wife wouldn't know how and hasn't been interested in learning. Now that I have a Flight Design CTLS with BRS, she'd be fine. She knows how to hit the LEVEL button on the A/P, reduce power, and pull the BRS handle.
 
She won't even punch in a code or tune a radio, she thinks if she touches anything on the panel we'll go down in a ball of flames. And that's really too bad, as right after I finished my PPL, my instructor told me he'd teach her to land a plane gratis, all I had to do was rent the plane. He'd just have her fly the pattern until she could land competently, but she wasn't interested. Oh well...
 
Amazing the similarity across so many spouses in not even wanting to touch the yoke. Offered to let her fly on an XC for a weekend away and got the same reaction as if I had offered to let her pet a rattlesnake. She did indicate an interest in a pinch hitter course, but not a lot of follow through. Not going to push it.
 
This might help with a nervous flying spouse:
Show them videos of Garmin Autoland and ballistic parachutes.
Put a large push button on your plane panel that is labelled "Press for Autoland" and a pull handle overhead that says " Pull for Parachute".
IF she ever has to use them she'll only be mad at you for a few minutes.
 
Mine would land it better than me :)

She was just out Saturday practicing landings and out doing air work after the annual to get used to the changes.

So I worry more about my daughter in this scenario. At 11 she can find airports and get it near the runway but not land it. She can pretty much take off though.
 
EdFred said:
My imaginary spouse flies her imaginary plane just fine.
Click to expand...

The two things that make my marriage last. First, we have nothing in common (and therefore nothing we care to argue about). Second, separate airplanes (when we fly commercial).
 
My wife would be dead. She has taken a pinch hitter ground school from a 99’s chapter and she can tune the radios and set the transponder. But she refuses to fly. I tired to connected her with a female CFI but no go. I have now located an FBO that uses a sim for a pinch hitters course and she indicated she might be interested in that.
 
He better lands the Mooney with no issue if I am incapacitated... o_O It’s always good to have a second pilot on board. :D;)
 
My wife has asked about doing a pinch hitter, and I said go for it, and it doesn't get past that. But she loves riding in the airplane, and she is in charge of the transponder since its much easier for her to access than me, thanks to the throw over yoke. She has flown the airplane straight and level a few times, but doesn't like doing it very long because she says its too hard to sightsee and fly at the same time.
 
My girlfriend isn't interested in getting a pilot's license, but she loves going flying and has expressed interest in taking lessons to learn how to at least land the plane in the event of an emergency like this. She gets more comfortable in the plane each time we fly. She's gone from closing her eyes on short final to looking at her phone.
 
On the last day of her first Oshkosh my wife was like "Teach me how to read the aeronautical chart so I have something to do on the way home" to "maybe I should take a pinch hitter course" to "Oh, hell, I'll just learn how to fly."
 
Mrs. Steingar knows where the autopilot button is. I showed her how to use it. That's the closest she's going to come to flying the aircraft. I doubt she could physically swing the bar to lower the gear.
 
My wife would have a straight-up panic attack and probably keel over, herself. She has taken the controls before, straight and level, and done extremely well. Having her direct the plane towards our destination makes her extremely nervous, as if she will rip a wing off. This is primarily why I don't often fly with her. One of these days I'm going to either send her up with a CFI or point it towards a mountain and tell her to take up back home, lol.

I bet if she was drunk she would fly the plane much better as her nervousness would be stunted.
 
I've been teaching my wife how to:
  • set the heading bug to straight ahead & set the autopilot in heading & alt modes
  • enter a direct-to airport in the gps, activate, and switch to Nav mode on the A/P
  • select and activate an approach
  • turn on approach mode and let the plane fly the approach down to the runway, monitoring the airspeed
  • turn off the autopilot just short of the threshold and land
She's getting pretty good at it, and I think she'd be able to get it down without too much (or any) damage.

This assumes she can raise a controller to tell her what airport to go to and which approach to fly :)
 
Last edited:
I'm lucky. My spouse is a certificated pilot. And she has trained in my plane.
 
Sinistar said:
Have you argued over who gets to fly on a nice day (speaking from experience).
Click to expand...

Nope. She just got her certificate in order to be backup when we fly together. It's great having two pilots on board when flying IFR, though. Well, three if you count George, the autopilot. :D
 
I'm like Tim above...my wife (never seen the plane in 17 years I've owned it) would call "1-800-got-junk" and start clearing out all my stuff at home and the hangar (if she remembered where it is).
 
My wife's grandfather was a pilot.
Her grandmother got her "land-it certificate" way back when, and learned how to talk on the radio.
Her mother started training and at least got through solo in high school, but never finished.
My wife even expressed some interest... But when I try to get her to actually do it, she won't. :dunno:
 
Interesting. My wife also has no interest in the flying part, as in manipulating the controls. One of the seminars offered at last year's Twin Cessna Flyers convention was a pinch hitter ground school given by a Sim Com instructor. Every seat was full with SOs, including mine. They have a pretty good course and slick handout to take with. She liked the course. I am over simplifying, but their approach is to teach the autopilot and how to get the plane to an ILS and basically let the A/P get it to the ground. I tried to follow up with actual usage of that in our plane, but there wasn't much interest. I'll keep trying, but I'm not optimistic.
 
Mostly clueless. Definitely couldn't land it. I have told her about the chute, and what needs to be done. It's also on the chute handle cover. I need to go over it more with her now that we're back in a SR22; was flying a Baron 58.

If I'm really lucky I'll get her to do a pinch hitter class. Maybe we need to go to a Cirrus get together as they have those classes at them.

Someone she knows almost had to do it. Her husband had a heart issue, lost most of his vision, but enough came back so he could land. Now his wife has an interest in a pinch hitter course and my wife is thinking of it too.



Wayne
 
Since my spouse will be in one of those cars stuck on I-95 traffic......she would be clueless. :D
 
My spouse is an ATP with a gazillion hours.
...But if I passed out at the controls, he would have to figure out how to switch the gps out of my North Up and into his Track Up, and I'm not sure how survivable that is. :)
 
The whole time we were flying with our babies I was backup pilot. No way I’d let my kids in the plane otherwise. When they grew into adults, then they could fly with him alone, I wasn’t responsible for their lives anymore. Couldn’t boss them at that point anyway.:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top