First Passenger

Tantalum

Tantalum

Final Approach
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San_Diego_Pilot
Was curious, if you remember, who your first passenger was after getting your PPL

I was recently copying all my paper logbook entries into Foreflight and saw that my first passenger after I got my PPL was my brother in law (who is a glider pilot) and first non-aviation passenger was a few days later, my girlfriend at the time, now wife

The FF logbook copy over was kind of a pain but a fun trip down memory lane
 
My wife and son and hoo boy..that was a trip just chock full of mistakes...probably ruined the GA experience for her permanently lol..
 
My son was my first non-pilot passenger, and we used a FBO pillow as a booster to make sure he could see over the glareshield.
 
Caramon13 said:
that was a trip just chock full of mistakes...probably ruined the GA experience for her permanently
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...lol! I feel like there is a story to be told in there about getting airsick or something...

My (now) wife came up once before and the instructor had us doing stalls, slowflight, steep turns, etc. She's a good sport with trying adventurous things but the steep turns were a bad idea for motion sickness and those put her over the edge... to make it worse it was a hot August day and we had to do a go around on landing as the person ahead didn't clear the runway in time

So that was a learning experience... I now *never* do any kind of maneuvers with pax. Just not worth it. She was a good sport for sticking with me and the flying thing after that
 
My mom. I was still in training on her birthday but I gave her a boarding pass and told her she would be my first passenger.

She and I have a long history of Aviation memories. I think she cried the whole flight.

One of my best Aviation Memories the date
 
My wife, as soon as I was done with the check ride she met me at the airport and away we went.


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yep, took a bud and 2 golf bags in a cherokee 140 to the pinehurst area of NC for a round of golf. other than leaving a notch of flaps in for a good 5 minutes or so, mostly uneventful. I mean, other than it being an awesome event. u know.
 
I don't know about you guys, but my first passenger as PIC was the examiner....

See 14 CFR 61.47.
 
MAKG1 said:
I don't know about you guys, but my first passenger as PIC was the examiner....

See 14 CFR 61.47.
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Don't be a rabbit. :)

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SixPapaCharlie said:
My mom. I was still in training on her birthday but I gave her a boarding pass and told her she would be my first passenger.

She and I have a long history of Aviation memories. I think she cried the whole flight.

One of my best Aviation Memories the date
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I'm jealous, that's a nice memory for you to have of her. My mom unfortunately passed away right after I started training
 
My two kids. Up and down the river to see the fall colors. Wife gets motion sick too easily so didn't go as a whole family. :(
 
eman1200 said:
yep, took a bud and 2 golf bags in a cherokee 140 to the pinehurst area of NC for a round of golf. other than leaving a notch of flaps in for a good 5 minutes or so, mostly uneventful. I mean, other than it being an awesome event. u know.
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I left carb heat on once for about half the flight... d'oh!
 
Did my check ride in the AM then took a buddy from the flight school on a flight that afternoon covering what we did since he had a check ride with the same DPE the next morning and we were both in relatively unfamiliar areas.
 
I took a fellow controller up for my first passenger after I got my PPL.
 
Tantalum said:
...lol! I feel like there is a story to be told in there about getting airsick or something...
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Ugh...yeah.

Just some of the mistakes:
  • Went up in the middle of a hot day (instead of at night or during a calm early morning), lots of bumps and sweating on the ground
  • Spent 30 minutes pre-flighting with them waiting around outside...getting hot (SHOULD have had them relaxing inside in the A/C)
  • Got in the plane and had troubles with the radio transmitting and spent 20 minutes talking to myself trying to get a hold of ground. I thought I was getting stepped on.
  • Took off and had problems with transmitting on the SAME freakin' radio flying making me look like a moron.
  • And a whole bunch of other stupid things. Least they got a free lunch out of it.
Oh and I squawked that plane when I returned it. Turns out there was a note somewhere that someone forgot to pass onto me that Com 2 was receive only..not transmit.

<sigh>
 
Caramon13 said:
Just some of the mistakes:
  • Went up in the middle of a hot day (instead of at night or during a calm early morning), lots of bumps and sweating on the ground
  • Spent 30 minutes pre-flighting with them waiting around outside...getting hot (SHOULD have had them relaxing inside in the A/C)
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This seems to happen all too often to me. Last weekend I got to the airport half hour early before my guests were arriving specifically so I could get everything squared away before they arrived. Of course they were excited so got there 15 minutes early and the fuel truck was running behind. Oh well. At least the 172 wing gives some shade
 
pmanton said:
My father (1955)
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Dad was one of my first pax as well, flew from Nashua to Block Island for lunch, it was a good time. I don't go on FB much (or at all) anymore, but every couple years I get a reminder "X years ago this day" with a nice picture we took. Good memory
 
Mom, friend, and mom's friend. Flew to BDR to get some Mexican food. I didn't have my drivers license so my mom had to drive the crew car!
 
Tantalum said:
Was curious, if you remember, who your first passenger was after getting your PPL

I was recently copying all my paper logbook entries into Foreflight and saw that my first passenger after I got my PPL was my brother in law (who is a glider pilot) and first non-aviation passenger was a few days later, my girlfriend at the time, now wife

The FF logbook copy over was kind of a pain but a fun trip down memory lane
Click to expand...
first passenger was a very good friend. he didn't seem nervous but his wife sure was...and she stayed home!
 
Our middle daughter. I flew her up to Chattanooga to visit with my parents for a week. Picked up her younger sister, after spending her week with the grandparents, and flew her home. They are both in college now.

My mother was a nervous wreck waiting for us. Especially since somebody forgot to call her and tell her when he left. :oops:
 
All throughout my private training, my Mother-in-law would harp on me about how flying was extremely dangerous and how I was going to leave her daughter a widow, or I was going to burn to death in a plane crash. I would battle her emotional pleas with facts and information coupled with a calm and cheery delivery. As I was approaching my checkride, I was very surprised to have her tell me that she wanted to be my first passenger.

For attempt number 1, I had to scrub the flight during the engine run up, as the alternator-field circuit breaker was popped.

For attempt number 2, we flew out and had a very pleasant flight south of the Phoenix metro area. I had the best landing of my flying experience to that point. She was very impressed. It was a really awesome experience.

And in case anyone is wondering, I did not perform any engine stalls. :D:D:D
 
MAKG1 said:
Aileron rolls, on the other hand, were repeated over and over until she puked.
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Ha ha ha!!!! ;);) Actually no. I wanted this flight to be as smooth as possible... and that's the way it was.
 
azpilot said:
As I was approaching my checkride, I was very surprised to have her tell me that she wanted to be my first passenger.
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What do you think changed her mind? Does she still worry about you and her daughter or now that she's been up she feels better about it? Incidentally my mother in law also doesn't like the idea of me and her daughter flying, but she tolerates it. In her case they had a family death in aviation, uncle crashed an Aerostar 601P in Maine, so I can understand the apprehension

According to NTSB:
PILOT LOST CONTROL OF HIS AIRCRAFT DURING LOW ALTITUDE MANEUVERS TO ALIGN THE AIRCRAFT FOR LANDING. THE LOW CEILING AND RISING TERRAIN AROUND THE AIRPORT INFLUENCED THE PILOTS DECISIONS TO MAKE TIGHT TURNS AT LOW ALTITUDE. THE AIRCRAFT WAS STALLED AND ROLLED INVERTED ONTO THE RUNWAY DURING A TURN.
 
I'd have to go home and dig into my logbook, but I think it was my Dad, in a Cherokee 140. He's not a good flyer as it is, so looking back I'm impressed he sucked it up and went flying with his 17 year old kid.
 
My mom, then my sister. Mom was terrified and barely made it around the pattern.
 
Tantalum said:
What do you think changed her mind? Does she still worry about you and her daughter or now that she's been up she feels better about it? Incidentally my mother in law also doesn't like the idea of me and her daughter flying, but she tolerates it. In her case they had a family death in aviation, uncle crashed an Aerostar 601P in Maine, so I can understand the apprehension

According to NTSB:
PILOT LOST CONTROL OF HIS AIRCRAFT DURING LOW ALTITUDE MANEUVERS TO ALIGN THE AIRCRAFT FOR LANDING. THE LOW CEILING AND RISING TERRAIN AROUND THE AIRPORT INFLUENCED THE PILOTS DECISIONS TO MAKE TIGHT TURNS AT LOW ALTITUDE. THE AIRCRAFT WAS STALLED AND ROLLED INVERTED ONTO THE RUNWAY DURING A TURN.
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Wow, I'm really sorry to hear about the family member that died. In the case of my mother-in-law, I found that talking through the causes of crashes helped her to understand the risks. Once she had knowledge of the risks, it helped her feel more comfortable about flying. Also, the fact that I aborted the first flight upped her confidence level quite a bit. That helped her to understand that if there was anything wrong, I was going to error on the side of caution in order to keep everyone safe.

Also, along the way, I read this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Zone-Second-How-Pilots/dp/0071798404

This is where I got a lot of my facts and information regarding aviation incidents. I'd highly recommend it to anyone that flies GA.
 
My first pax was a good friend... we flew 89 nm down to Chatham for a great lunch then flew back in some pretty decent bumps (not forecasted). I was worried she was going to get freaked out or sick, but instead she called the bumps "fun" and loved it so much that she went back up with me shortly after.

I might the only pilot who has never taken up family... my parents and sibling live too far away, and my husband isn't interested (he's a big fan of gravity).
 
My wife was first - about a week after my PPL checkride. She's become a great flier and is working on her PPL. The first time we flew together was San Francisco to Sydney on a 747 and with every bump she grabbed my arm and asked "is that ok?". Fast forward twenty years and we were flying to Cuba in our Dakota.
 
No non-pilot passengers in my first 25 years, except my son, who is now a pilot.

I don't like PAX; they reduce performance, yelp, pray too loudly, and sometimes puke. Hauled them frequently in the next 13-14 years, as a CAP mission pilot, though on "real" missions, the right seat was usually another pilot. Again, the CAP non-pilots were mostly solar powered, ambulatory, free range performance handicaps.

I did, on rare occasion, do cadet orientation flights, usually with less of a weight penalty, and much quieter.

The last four years - other pilots only. . .
 
Ravioli said:
Mine was a friend. When we got back and Taxiing to the hangar I told him he was my first passenger.

He said: if I knew that I wouldn't have come!
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I did the same thing with my first pax flight in the RV-9A! A good friend, the president of our golf club.

He was cool with it, especially after I told him about all the test flights done in Phase 1 with ballast, etc.
 
Ravioli said:
He said: if I knew that I wouldn't have come!
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Yes when I was low time I didn't advertise that, even now it makes people feel better if they know how many landings you have in the last month or so...
 
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