ISPYFROMABOVE
Filing Flight Plan
Well. It's finally happened. I've been lurking around a bit, reading about other recently minted private pilots who experienced flying with their first passengers, as well as the tips about first PAX flying from the more seasoned folks. I had the privelege of flying my first passengers yesterday.
I've been a Private Pilot for about 7 months, but i've continued my training and hadn't really had an opportunity to fly for fun until now. I banged out my Private ASEL and AMEL last year and finished my Instrument rating early in January. After that I immediately started preparing for the commercial ratings, finishing my commercial in both single and multi last month. I've got a little over 200 hrs, devided up fairly equally between C-172, and PA-44, plus a little over 50 hrs in an FTD.
Most of my flying lately has been out of KRAL (riverside Municipal in Southern California). KREI (Redlands Municipal) is closer to home for me, so I visited the flight school there, and ended up joining one of the local flying clubs. I got checked out in their 172's the same day. That was last thursday. Since I recieved my initial PPL last year, my mother has been jumping up and down, hounding me about taking her flying. She is/ was a glider pilot, so having her son chase the sky around didn't bother her. I've been so busy with flying, work, marriage, and well.... life in general, that I hadn't really had the chance to have fun in a while. So yesterday at about 10 AM, my mom, my brother, and my 94 year old grandpa showed up at the airport for some flying.
We took up C-172 N54844. We had to go up 3 at a time, all 4 of us would have put us 50 LBS over max gross Oh well. mom in the right seat, grandpa in the back and me left seat, we take off out of KREI, transition through KSBD's class D airspace in our climb, and level off at 4500' headed west. I picked up flight following and advised the controller that we would be headed to KCCB (cable airport) then down to KRAL and that I would like to get a VFR practice approach into KRAL. Mom was interested to see what the IFR flying was about. Got vectors to final after KCCB, lined up on the localizer and was cleared for the ILS 9 approach into KRAL near KCNO (chino). The haze yesterday limited visibility to about 4 miles, so mom got to see how we use the glide slope and localizer to line up with the runway etc. Every time I looked in the back seat, grandpa had a smile from ear to ear. Traffic was using runway 27 at KRAL, so we circled south well above minimumns. I broke off the approach at pattern altitude, entered left traffic for 27 and completed a nice greaser onto 27 at KRAL. Taxied back and departed VFR to return to KREI. Once out of the pattern I let mom take the controls and fly us back up to KREI. Her comment was something like "boy this doesn't feel much like a sail plane". The landing at KREI was uneventfull and the hobbs showed about .9 hrs. I shut the airplane down, mom jumped out and my brother jumped in. Grandpa stayed glued to the back seat. Took off from KREI and went to the east this time. flew over downtown redlands, a little into Yucaipa, and then turned and went to KSBD. We did some pattern work at KSBD before returning to KREI. Again, the landings were uneventfull. Everyone was happy and giddy from the flight. Total for both flights was 1.8 hrs. Even with my Commercial rating, this was a big step. I never doubted that I could operate the airplane safely with passengers. But since I haden't yet had the opportunity to do it, this experience was great. Now I have to figure out a way to coax the wife into the cockpit.
I've been a Private Pilot for about 7 months, but i've continued my training and hadn't really had an opportunity to fly for fun until now. I banged out my Private ASEL and AMEL last year and finished my Instrument rating early in January. After that I immediately started preparing for the commercial ratings, finishing my commercial in both single and multi last month. I've got a little over 200 hrs, devided up fairly equally between C-172, and PA-44, plus a little over 50 hrs in an FTD.
Most of my flying lately has been out of KRAL (riverside Municipal in Southern California). KREI (Redlands Municipal) is closer to home for me, so I visited the flight school there, and ended up joining one of the local flying clubs. I got checked out in their 172's the same day. That was last thursday. Since I recieved my initial PPL last year, my mother has been jumping up and down, hounding me about taking her flying. She is/ was a glider pilot, so having her son chase the sky around didn't bother her. I've been so busy with flying, work, marriage, and well.... life in general, that I hadn't really had the chance to have fun in a while. So yesterday at about 10 AM, my mom, my brother, and my 94 year old grandpa showed up at the airport for some flying.
We took up C-172 N54844. We had to go up 3 at a time, all 4 of us would have put us 50 LBS over max gross Oh well. mom in the right seat, grandpa in the back and me left seat, we take off out of KREI, transition through KSBD's class D airspace in our climb, and level off at 4500' headed west. I picked up flight following and advised the controller that we would be headed to KCCB (cable airport) then down to KRAL and that I would like to get a VFR practice approach into KRAL. Mom was interested to see what the IFR flying was about. Got vectors to final after KCCB, lined up on the localizer and was cleared for the ILS 9 approach into KRAL near KCNO (chino). The haze yesterday limited visibility to about 4 miles, so mom got to see how we use the glide slope and localizer to line up with the runway etc. Every time I looked in the back seat, grandpa had a smile from ear to ear. Traffic was using runway 27 at KRAL, so we circled south well above minimumns. I broke off the approach at pattern altitude, entered left traffic for 27 and completed a nice greaser onto 27 at KRAL. Taxied back and departed VFR to return to KREI. Once out of the pattern I let mom take the controls and fly us back up to KREI. Her comment was something like "boy this doesn't feel much like a sail plane". The landing at KREI was uneventfull and the hobbs showed about .9 hrs. I shut the airplane down, mom jumped out and my brother jumped in. Grandpa stayed glued to the back seat. Took off from KREI and went to the east this time. flew over downtown redlands, a little into Yucaipa, and then turned and went to KSBD. We did some pattern work at KSBD before returning to KREI. Again, the landings were uneventfull. Everyone was happy and giddy from the flight. Total for both flights was 1.8 hrs. Even with my Commercial rating, this was a big step. I never doubted that I could operate the airplane safely with passengers. But since I haden't yet had the opportunity to do it, this experience was great. Now I have to figure out a way to coax the wife into the cockpit.