iWantWings
Pre-takeoff checklist
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2011
- Messages
- 437
- Location
- Southern California
- Display Name
- wingsIwant
- Home Airfield
- Uncontrolled
Although my wife has no fear or hesitation of flying on a commercial jet or lager twin, she is scared of flying "in a small plane". She is aware and knows her fear and fright are more than reasonable, but anyways, I was pretty surprised when she asked when was I going to take my 2 oldest kids flying?
This past saturday all things lined up: weather was good, a C172 was available at just the right time and the kids and I were in good shape (i was just getting over a pretty bad cold).*
My 2 oldest kids were going to be my first passengers
I wasn't quite sure what my 2 year old was going to be like; there are times when he's a dynamite. Occasionally I take them to the airport and the flight school let me sit them in the front seats of a parked C172 - they loved it. The little one wanted to push, pull, and twist every knob, dial and control he could reach (no, i didnt't let him mess anything up). So I thought it would be best if he was safely strapped in in the rear seats, out of reach from the controlls - for this first flight anyways.
My 8 year old kicks butt - she's got her head on her shoulder better than I do; she wanted to be seated next to her younger brother in the rear seats as well. Surely enough, the rear seats had only one headset interface the the comm radios, so she got to sit in the front.*
Once at the airport we were delayed; 1/2 hour past the scheduled time the plane was not yet in - it was on a checkride. And that's when my wife kept calling and asking if we were done; o-oh, she was really getting anxious (she was so concerned that she did not want to come see us, only wanted to know "when it was over"). She tried convincing me to posptpone the flight. *So i wasted no more time and strapped and velcro'ed the kids in one of the other 172.*
While taxing to the run-up, off the corner of my eye I see a white car driving on a parallel roadway: it's my wife. Later she told me she could no longer stay at home with the youngest baby, worrying of what the flight will be like, so she zoomed to the airport. Cool, she looked happy waving at the kids.*
So this changed my plans. Initially I was going to get the kids for a short flight over some local scenery, but now that my wife was there, I wanted her to see that all is good and decided on flying 3 patterns so she could check out the flight herself (hint-hint).*
Here is video of the flight - it is pretty long and I mounted the camera in a hurry; my face and big nose fill up the screen more than it should. I can see my daughter well; hardly any glimpse of my rear seated son though (i had mounted a convex small mirror near the center of the panel and could see him at all times, but the gopro was mounted elsewhere). I am very happy with the audio: the gopro was interfaced to the radios while a small olympus audio recorder captured the engine audio as heard in the cockpit (i reduced the engine noise when mixing the two).*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFYx77KXhzI
So I'll be pacient and eventually i'll get my wife to fly too.
This past saturday all things lined up: weather was good, a C172 was available at just the right time and the kids and I were in good shape (i was just getting over a pretty bad cold).*
My 2 oldest kids were going to be my first passengers
I wasn't quite sure what my 2 year old was going to be like; there are times when he's a dynamite. Occasionally I take them to the airport and the flight school let me sit them in the front seats of a parked C172 - they loved it. The little one wanted to push, pull, and twist every knob, dial and control he could reach (no, i didnt't let him mess anything up). So I thought it would be best if he was safely strapped in in the rear seats, out of reach from the controlls - for this first flight anyways.
My 8 year old kicks butt - she's got her head on her shoulder better than I do; she wanted to be seated next to her younger brother in the rear seats as well. Surely enough, the rear seats had only one headset interface the the comm radios, so she got to sit in the front.*
Once at the airport we were delayed; 1/2 hour past the scheduled time the plane was not yet in - it was on a checkride. And that's when my wife kept calling and asking if we were done; o-oh, she was really getting anxious (she was so concerned that she did not want to come see us, only wanted to know "when it was over"). She tried convincing me to posptpone the flight. *So i wasted no more time and strapped and velcro'ed the kids in one of the other 172.*
While taxing to the run-up, off the corner of my eye I see a white car driving on a parallel roadway: it's my wife. Later she told me she could no longer stay at home with the youngest baby, worrying of what the flight will be like, so she zoomed to the airport. Cool, she looked happy waving at the kids.*
So this changed my plans. Initially I was going to get the kids for a short flight over some local scenery, but now that my wife was there, I wanted her to see that all is good and decided on flying 3 patterns so she could check out the flight herself (hint-hint).*
Here is video of the flight - it is pretty long and I mounted the camera in a hurry; my face and big nose fill up the screen more than it should. I can see my daughter well; hardly any glimpse of my rear seated son though (i had mounted a convex small mirror near the center of the panel and could see him at all times, but the gopro was mounted elsewhere). I am very happy with the audio: the gopro was interfaced to the radios while a small olympus audio recorder captured the engine audio as heard in the cockpit (i reduced the engine noise when mixing the two).*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFYx77KXhzI
So I'll be pacient and eventually i'll get my wife to fly too.
. Glad you enjoyed the video!