How to get PAX more engaged?

MetalCloud

MetalCloud

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Oct 12, 2015
Messages
739
Display Name
Display name:
MetalCloud
My kids love flying with me, and I want to give them more things to do (which they're totally open to).

On my last trip my daughter helped with:

-preflight
-reading pre-takeoff Checklist items out loud
-changing radio frequencies

What are some other things they can do to assist?
 
Help plan the flight.
Follow along with a chart, to make sure you're going in the right direction, based on the flight plan.
When flying S&L, let them fly the plane. Or other times when you feel it safe.
Help pump gas.
 
Maintain straight and level flight while you read charts or dig out a water bottle or something. Or as Murphey suggested, just let them fly straight and level in general.

Look for traffic, obviously.

Identify towns, airports, and lakes that are labeled on the chart as you fly past them.

Help identify taxiways when you are on the ground so you go the right way to and from the runway.
 
PAX always seem to get a kick out of actually hand flying. I will usually have them follow a curvy road or coastline or navigate between visual targets while trying to hold it level.

or

Designate them the navigator and give them a paper chart to plot your actual track with a pencil using just visual reference out the window...ya know...that thing we used to have to do before magenta lines...then see if they can steer you back.
 
Last edited:
This is NOT a suggestion for children in the plane, but for adult passengers I find they engage very quickly when I pull out the POH and start leafing through it with a puzzled look on my face and muttering something inaudible. :D
 
I've been a "passenger" for many miles sitting in the right seat but mostly having to defer to the PIC. As an A&P/IA I can live with most decisions of the PIC, but occasionally have had to correct or tell my friend he was wrong. Most of those corrections involved something as simple as frequency changes or altitude assignments.They were accepted without equivocation because he knew I have knowledge of some ATC procedures and regulations.

Not sure what I would say to those new to flight but eons ago a friend took a newbie up. Probably scares the hell out of her to the point of her never flying again. It's like a roller-coaster ride, ya pays your money and takes your chances.

The first flight I had was well explained by the PIC right down to the stall horn. No fear whatever since that initiation.
 
Most of the people I fly with just want to be passengers. Occasionally they'll be a little more interested and I'll have them do radio calls
 
GRG55 said:
This is NOT a suggestion for children in the plane, but for adult passengers I find they engage very quickly when I pull out the POH and start leafing through it with a puzzled look on my face and muttering something inaudible. :D
Click to expand...

GRG,

If it's a case of you having to read the instructions I will stay on the ground. Checklists are necessary but don't overdo them. Scaring the pax before leaving the ground does not make for confidence in the pilot.

On a side note I once watched a part 135 pilot fail to get the engines started on a 421. He deplaned his pax and asked if I could help. I turned the fuel selectors on, started the engines, and all was well much to his embarrassment. . Cant help but wonder what the pax thought.

We all make mistakes but that one was downright dumb. I would not fly with that guy.

I've also been embarrassed. Tried to start an older Cherokee where the mixture control was on the far right side of the panel. Primed it and got some fire but the engine died. Of course I had an audience. On the way back to the shop I realized what the problem was and what I had forgotten. To save face I waited till the audience left. Embarrassed myself but learned something along the way.
 
GRG55 said:
This is NOT a suggestion for children in the plane, but for adult passengers I find they engage very quickly when I pull out the POH and start leafing through it with a puzzled look on my face and muttering something inaudible. :D
Click to expand...
One of our Young Eagle pilots (an RV6) will pull out the POH while the kid is flying the airplane and start reading aloud the instructions to land the airplane.
 
I'll have them be the checklist keeper. Read each section and I respond.

Take-off, climb, cruise, decent, before landing... there are things in each phase to be confirmed. Sure, I've usually done the items from memory, but we run the list together to confirm.

Also, for low wings, let them be the fuel tank switching monitor.
 
These are AWESOME!!

I love these ideas. Keep 'em coming
 
Fall asleep. All of a sudden they think they have to fly the plane.

We used to dial in a vor and let the person fly their way to it and try to find it.

Follow a river or road is always fun.
 
Am I the only one who's heard the joke?

"He said <do this> or get out of my airplane."
"Did you jump?"
"A little, at first."

Nauga,
who knows youth is fleeting but immaturity can last a lifetime
 
nauga said:
Am I the only one who's heard the joke?

"He said <do this> or get out of my airplane."
"Did you jump?"
"A little, at first."

Nauga,
who knows youth is fleeting but immaturity can last a lifetime
Click to expand...

You are not.
 
adult first time pax I'm not going to suggest they keep their heads down and read stuff. kids may be different but I dunno cause I haven't taken kids up yet. I'll almost always offer the right seat pax to take a stab at the wheel. usually they are all over that, on rare occasions they don't want any part of it and just want to enjoy observing the mad skillz of their handsome pilot <---------------------------------- (that's me)..
 
Nauga has it nailed. I had a sheriff's deputy friend who had the same warped sense of humor. He moved and I still miss his humor.
 
Safety enhancement trick with kids: offer a buck for each new traffic they spot (in the air). That can keep the materialistic ones engaged for hours. :)
 
MetalCloud said:
My kids love flying with me, and I want to give them more things to do (which they're totally open to).

On my last trip my daughter helped with:

-preflight
-reading pre-takeoff Checklist items out loud
-changing radio frequencies

What are some other things they can do to assist?
Click to expand...
Pull the red handle when you stroke out.
 
nauga said:
Am I the only one who's heard the joke?

"He said <do this> or get out of my airplane."
"Did you jump?"
"A little, at first."

Nauga,
who knows youth is fleeting but immaturity can last a lifetime
Click to expand...

Poor use of an actually funny joke.

Like the one about being asked if you want to go camping.
 
One thing I do is give them a camera, and let them document the flight with pictures. More than once I have given the passenger the sectional we used during the flight.
 
For anyone new, I always like to explain what is taking place. (Ex. What the purpose of the run-up is, how the avionics work, how we'll make our approach and landing etc.,) Talking through certain tasks helps to keep any anxiety they may have at bay, and hopefully make them more comfortable.
It's always rewarding to see that grin from ear to ear after they de-plane.

Some of my other friends who enjoy aviation but are non-pilots, enjoy being able to make some turns and fly the airplane at altitude under my supervision.
 
My Pax us always engaged, never know when the student will yell your plane and switch off

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
WannFly said:
My Pax us always engaged, never know when the student will yell your plane and switch off
Click to expand...

You joke but my CFI had to fire a concurrent student as me when she was on downwind about to tune base throws her hands up in the air and yells "I can't do this anymore" and gives up!...so it does happen!

So much for "you have the controls"...she apparently should not have been flying in the first place and was being pressured by her husband who lost his medical but they owned a plane. CFI and flight school booted her butt.
 
Sit the f**k down, shut the f**k up, or get the f**k out.

Seriously, I avoid having non-pilot pax - haven't had one since leaving CAP a few years back. My flying time is for me. . .
 
Shawn said:
You joke but my CFI had to fire a concurrent student as me when she was on downwind about to tune base throws her hands up in the air and yells "I can't do this anymore" and gives up!...so it does happen!

So much for "you have the controls"...she apparently should not have been flying in the first place and was being pressured by her husband who lost his medical but they owned a plane. CFI and flight school booted her butt.
Click to expand...

you *think* I am joking.. just ask my CFI :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top