First Time Passenger as Navigator

azpilot

azpilot

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azpilot
I am taking my dad flying for the first time tomorrow. He has been in GA airplanes before, but I have never taken him flying. This is going to be a short flight from KCHD to KAVQ. My mom is coming as well. We'll head down to Marana and have breakfast, then come home.

I gave my dad a challenge. He's lived here in Arizona his whole life. He thinks he knows his directions pretty well (and he does). I challenged him to be the navigator for the trip. He has never had any flight training classes at all. He can barely work his smart phone. I suggested he use google Earth, google maps and I also pointed him to skyvector, but I doubt he could figure out how to use it (skyvector).

Of course, I have all the navigation planned and written down just in case anything goes wrong. I have made this flight 6 times before. Visibility will be fantastic and it should be a beautiful VFR day here in Arizona. I told him I'll take care of the altitudes and I'll keep us out of trouble.

Any bets on whether he can get us there? He is convinced it will be a piece of cake. Honestly, it really shouldn't be that difficult. As long as he can find I-10, we just need to follow that South. From there, he just needs to figure out where the airport is.

We are making the flight tomorrow morning, I'll let everyone know how he does.
 
I'm betting your dad gets it right. I'm the same way, and when I was in training my instructor could never get me turned around enough where I didn't know where we were. One time after going to a new practice area we hadn't been to before and doing a bunch of turns around a point, he said "Ok, take me back to the airport", and turned off the GPS. I told him, "It's right over that way" and pointed in the direction. A few miles later we could see it right where I pointed. He never worried about me getting lost on solo cross countries!
 
petrolero said:
I bet he'll figure it out if he has a road map handy.
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The only part that might trip him up is KMZJ. The main runway at KAVQ will look similar to KMZJ. But if he is smart enough to look for some landmarks, he'll probably figure it out.
 
I'm going with your Dad getting you there,VFR dead reckoning has been around for years.
 
He'll get you there, "I follow roads." Finding the airport will be hit or miss. Some are easier to see than others.
 
evapilotaz said:
I bet he can drive faster there. Lol
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No doubt... I am going to get to the airport at 7:30 and hopefully have the pre-flight done and the airplane fueled and all ready by the time they get there at 8:00.

But knowing, my dad, he'll get there at 7:45, because he's always 15 minutes early to everything. Then again, he is dragging my mom along, so they might only be 5 minutes early.

All joking aside, it's just a fun flight. That's the only kind of flying I do. It's all about the journey.
 
Update - I talked to my dad. He is pretty sure he'll be able to spot the circle-K gas station at the exit on I-10 that leads to the airport. That is how he is planning on knowing if we're in the right spot. I didn't realize this, but he has driven right past the Marana airport several times to head out that way on hunting trips. Maybe this will be easier for him than I thought.
 
Me thinks he'll pass with flying colors. Us old guys are built that way. I'm 54. Got my ppl two years ago. My CFI was 26. He was always trying to get me lost. He'd put me in the foggles. I'd take them off and he'd say what heading do you need to get us home. I'd look at the surroundings and get it right every time. Really ****ed him off!
 
Loveair said:
Me thinks he'll pass with flying colors. Us old guys are built that way. I'm 54. Got my ppl two years ago. My CFI was 26. He was always trying to get me lost. He'd put me in the foggles. I'd take them off and he'd say what heading do you need to get us home. I'd look at the surroundings and get it right every time. Really ****ed him off!
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He should have taken you away from your local area. :yesnod: :D
 
mscard88 said:
He should have taken you away from your local area. :yesnod: :D
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^^ This ^^

I'm really giving my dad a softball flight here to be the navigator on. There are some really easy landmarks to use. I am sure he'll get it just fine.

Now, If we were going further, I have a feeling he would struggle quite a bit.
 
Well, wave to me as you fly South, I'll be at 10,500 on my way to Flag. :D
 
Loveair said:
Me thinks he'll pass with flying colors. Us old guys are built that way. I'm 54. Got my ppl two years ago. My CFI was 26. He was always trying to get me lost. He'd put me in the foggles. I'd take them off and he'd say what heading do you need to get us home. I'd look at the surroundings and get it right every time. Really ****ed him off!
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My instructor pulled some similar moves on me. I am 35 and he was in his mid 40's. I just don't think it would be possible for me to get turned around in the practice area. There are so many landmarks in the Phoenix area. We're basically in a giant 100 mile wide basin. Visibility is typically over 50 miles.
 
I dated a girl who knew how to program a Garmin 430, that was magical. Didn't work out, crazy was strong.
 
azpilot said:
No doubt... I am going to get to the airport at 7:30 and hopefully have the pre-flight done and the airplane fueled and all ready by the time they get there at 8:00.

But knowing, my dad, he'll get there at 7:45, because he's always 15 minutes early to everything. Then again, he is dragging my mom along, so they might only be 5 minutes early.

All joking aside, it's just a fun flight. That's the only kind of flying I do. It's all about the journey.
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I agree it's about the adventure of flying not how fast to get some place. Enjoy.
 
BigBadLou said:
Have you started a pool yet?
Put me down for $100 on your dad.
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Ya, I don't think I'll take that bet, I am sure he'll get us there just fine. :yes:

But if he can't figure it out, I'll never let him hear the end of it. This is a total win-win for me!
 
evapilotaz said:
He may surprise you and whip out that iPhone 6s and Fire up that trial fore flight he downloaded.
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Or he may surprise you and try the mile high club w/ your mom.


This whole thing sounds shady to me.
 
evapilotaz said:
He may surprise you and whip out that iPhone 6s and Fire up that trial fore flight he downloaded.
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I'm pretty sure my dad doesn't even know how to install an app on his phone. He has never gotten along too well with technology.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Or he may surprise you and try the mile high club w/ your mom.


This whole thing sounds shady to me.
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Now how am I supposed to fly when you put thoughts like that in my head! This is my parents!!! Come on!!!!! :mad2::nono::mad2:

I'll track the flight with Cloud Ahoy. Maybe I'll put up a screen shot of the flight to show everyone how he did.

Then again, someone will probably nit pick my flight and tell me all the things I did wrong, so maybe not.
 
What? That's not what you thought it would be?:D
 

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Alright, here is the debrief. We took off from Chandler, and it took my dad about five seconds to find I-10, then he said, "follow the road". Oh, but it wasn't that easy!!!!

I gave my dad my paper sectional chart. He was able to notice that KMZJ came before KAVQ. KMZJ is super easy to spot because there are about 30 747's parked out on the tarmac. It sticks out like a sore thumb. KMZJ is only 8 NM away from KAVQ. I stayed on the East side of I-10. My dad kept looking for the circle K that he turns at when he goes on his hunting trips. He eventually found the circle K, but then he couldn't find the airport. We were only three miles away to north. He knew exactly where it was, but he couldn't see it. After about 30 second of him looking he finally "saw" the airport. We were at just the right angle from the airport that it was difficult to see both runways.

Once he pointed at the airport, and I could tell that he could actually "see it", I turned to enter the pattern and land. We had a great breakfast at KAVQ and had favorable winds on the way home. The landing back at KCHD was a real beauty! On the way home I asked my mom if she wanted to try navigating (my parents switched seats), and she said, "No, I have no idea where we are."
 
True, some airports are notoriously hard to spot from the air. Especially if you don't know what features to look for.

Glad y'all had a great trip. Hope both your parents enjoyed it as much as you did. (no, we don't need any TMI :D )
 
evapilotaz said:
Again How did you get the day off?
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I am "mostly" in charge of my own schedule at work. I scheduled this two weeks in advance at let everyone know I would be coming in late today. After landing at KCHD, I came straight to work and made it here by 11:30. I'll put in five hours today and stay until 4:30 PM. I made up the time earlier in the week by working an extra hour or two the other days.

On an interesting side note, my employer is going to experiment with a 9/80 work schedule this summer. I am super excited about that. If the trial work well, we'll work 80 hours over nine days per two week pay period rather than 80 hours over 10 days per two week pay period. That in effect will give us an extra 26 days off per year.
 
BigBadLou said:
True, some airports are notoriously hard to spot from the air. Especially if you don't know what features to look for.

Glad y'all had a great trip. Hope both your parents enjoyed it as much as you did. (no, we don't need any TMI :D )
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I actually had a little bit of a difficult time spotting it too, but I have flown in there a half dozen times already. It was just funny to see him looking right at it, but not being able to see it. He was able to back track from the gas station that he always turns at, and then follow the roads to where the airport was. It probably would have been easier if we were a bit higher, but by this time, I was already down to about 500' above TPA.

They really had a great time. On the way back home I asked them if they wanted to do some stalls. They declined. :lol::lol::lol: I find that most people don't really know what a stall is. Everyone seems to think it involves shutting the engine off.
 
azpilot said:
What? That's not what you thought it would be?:D
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Is that after they did the deed? Smiles going on there..... :D

Handsome couple, like the paint on your bird. Glad y'all had fun! :yesnod:
 
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azpilot said:
I'll track the flight with Cloud Ahoy. Maybe I'll put up a screen shot of the flight to show everyone how he did.
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Be sure to mark the exact spot where you new sibling was consummated.
 
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