Anyway, i got my license about a year and a half ago, and silly me, i expected people would WANT to fly with me. Although a few family and friends have gone up with me, almost everyone ive asked has given me some variation of "little planes are deathtraps". Has anyone had success fighting this? Any tips? Women seem to be particularly prone to this fear. Most guys can at least be "shamed" into going up once you question their masculinity a few times (although usually i just let them off the hook). Ive tried the "its no more dangerous than a motorcycle", but to no avail. I have a several nieces and nephews, and their parents have made it clear that they dont want me offering rides to the kids.
First: Don't say "It's no more dangerous than a motorcycle." People perceive motorcycles to be dangerous as well.
Second: Focus on the positives. Tell those parents what great values aviation can instill in their kids and how they'll be inspired to pay attention in school, not do drugs or drive drunk, etc. I'm sure EAA's Young Eagles program could help with this sort of information.
Third: Educate. Whether the parents, or just adults you want to take up - Ignorance is the source of their fear. All they ever hear about small airplanes is what they read in the newspaper, and none of that's good.
Tell them about how 85% of accidents are due to pilot error, and how you train to avoid those accidents and read accident reports to learn from the mistakes of others. (You do, don't you?) Show them the airplane on the ground, show them what a preflight inspection is. Maybe have them watch you fly around the pattern. Tell them about the great adventure you had last weekend, or that neat little $100 burger joint you'd like to take them to for dinner. Show them the latest awesome pictures you got.
Once they hear about the fun you're having, they'll get curious. Once they know that you have gone flying every weekend this month and have come back unscathed every time, they'll realize that you can fly.
THEN, offer to take them for a flight. Give them some control: Tell them that as soon as they decide they don't like it that you'll happily bring them right back to the airport. Go through the preflight with them, tell them what you're checking and why. Give them a thorough briefing - That will breed confidence.
Be very careful what you say and how you say it before and during the flight, though - One of the VERY few people I never got to go up in an airplane with me had been offered a ride by his brother, who jokingly said something like "Well, the wings probably won't fall off." That's a guy who will stay on the ground for life, not something we want!
Also, don't say things like "oh crap" when you do something simple that's wrong (say, you hit the wrong button on the audio panel or something). That'll lead to panic, at least temporarily.
As you taxi out and do your runup, explain what you're doing and why. Sitting at the hold short line, remind them they're in control by asking if they are ready to go.
On the flight - Do not do any sudden maneuvers. Explain what's happening and why. No stalls, no steep turns - You may even have to explain why you bank to turn an airplane if they haven't been on an airline flight before. Keep everything nice and gentle. Going along with that, be sure to fly when there's likely to be as little turbulence as possible. Winter days without high wind, the rest of the year either early morning or around sunset. (Sunset flights are a good thing to try, too).
Finally - KISS. Keep It
Short, Stupid! Take off, show them the sights locally, fly over their house and/or their office, and land. That's it, unless they ask for more. The trick is to keep them interested and not allow them to get bored, because if they start getting the slightest bit bored, they'll start thinking about being scared. So, get them on the ground before they even think about being scared, and you will have completed a very successful first flight!
For example, here in Madison, I ask Clearance for a "city tour", take off on 21 (pointed basically downtown) or 32 (left turn to downtown, keeps them on the "up" side of the plane for the first turn), fly around the capitol, Camp Randall Stadium and the campus, their house or office, and then come back in to land.
I've given a lot of first flights, in many cases it was the person's first time off the ground in any aircraft. The above is how I do it, and it works really well.
It's extremely rewarding, too. I had a guy who was "deathly afraid" of airplanes, had never been on one - Took him to the airport, surreptitiously preflighted under the guise of showing him the parts of the airplane, got in, showed him all the stuff inside and how it worked. Then I just said, "OK, wanna go for a ride?" He said "Well, I reckon!" and off we went. A half hour later we were back at the hangar and he was calling every one of his kids to tell them "Daddy flew on an airplane!" Man, that never gets old! I had another guy do the same thing (calling all the kids), but he wasn't as deathly afraid. Then there was the woman who liked it so much she kept asking to go look at something else, that one ended up being well over an hour long (as opposed to the usual half hour on the Hobbs).
Also, if you get one person from a group to go up, and they have a good time, your chances of getting other people from that group to go up increase significantly.
Hope this helps, and welcome to PoA!
