Obnoxiousness to an instrument student...

TulsaWeather

TulsaWeather

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Jun 16, 2007
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TulsaWeather
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Thankfully he's still a friend.

I was riding in the backseat of a 172 while my friend flew his dual (hooded) x/c with a mutual friend/CFI in the right seat. Why not make it a trip to go eat at an on-field restaurant?

Amigo takes off, dons the foggles, and we get established on the airway nicely, and climb to altitude and he trims the plane up perfectly.

I lean all the way back, altitude increases/airspeed decreases, amigo retrims.

I lean forward to just behind the front seats, altitude decreases/airspeed increases, amigo retrims.

I repeat this cycle, unseen by either at about one minute intervals. On the third cycle, our CFI friend starts laughing w/out even looking. He had figured it out.

On about the tenth cycle, amigo finally asks on intercom why the plane isn't holding trim. CFI suggests he ask me.

Anyone need a backseat passenger?
 
And with the permission of the CFI, your amigo could perform some nice PIO to make your backseat ride not quite as enjoyable...
 
Bob Noel said:
And with the permission of the CFI, your amigo could perform some nice PIO to make your backseat ride not quite as enjoyable...
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funny you should say that, while at dinner, the CFI told me that he'd have my friend do unusual attitude recoveries on the way home. You can bet I didn't move an inch on the way back.
 
That's nothing. I rode backseat with a friend on several instrument dual flights. The CFI would distract the pilot (ok, fine) then totally screw with all the radios or switch squawk code(definitely not fine!)
 
A guy who misses the forecast as badly and as often as he does needs some other form of comic relief. :smilewinkgrin:
 
That's hilarious! I'll have to remember that for next time I'm in back
 
I took my wife and 18 month old son up in the club's -172 on Halloween. I noticed everytime my wife would lean over the seatback to adjust his headset, the plane would climb or descend. I had to tell her to stop because I was afraid it would make him airsick! Lol!
 
I think a little dutch roll for the rear seater is a more fitting comeuppance.......blech....
 
Richard said:
That's nothing. I rode backseat with a friend on several instrument dual flights. The CFI would distract the pilot (ok, fine) then totally screw with all the radios or switch squawk code(definitely not fine!)
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That would be the last time that CFI flew with me. If the radio/squawk was set correctly and he changes it, that's bogus.
 
BillTIZ said:
That would be the last time that CFI flew with me. If the radio/squawk was set correctly and he changes it, that's bogus.
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I agree, though if I had a stun gun, it might be more fitting than firing the CFI.

On the flip side, you might very well fly with a left seater sometime that decides it's ok to monkey with the controls. Maybe a kid, maybe an idiot, maybe another pilot who's just trying to help out.

Being trained and prepared for such an instance would definitely step up your preflight preparedness (ah, my freqs and such are all written down here for reference).
 
I'll add a little story about why this might not be bad training.

When I was young, I was flying with my brother in our Arrow from Ontario, Canada to Tacoma. I'm a little fuzzy on the details as I was about 14 at the time(about '98 maybe). Anyways, we had just come out of the mountain and he tuned into the AWOS. After the AWOS had cycled through about a half dozen times, I was pretty tired of listening to it so I just reached up and turned down the volume:idea:. He didn't notice that happen as he must have had his eyes out of the plane. A minute of so later, he switched over to some ATC to request clearance to transition the airspace. I'm pretty sure it was a military base but I don't see that near Seattle right now so maybe we were elsewhere. After trying a few times and not getting any response as we got closer and closer, it finally dawned on him to check the volume.

I got a bit of a lecture about not messing with his radios after that:nono:

I'm not sure I would mess with a squawk code as that might confuse ATC, but beware of those young passengers just dumb enough to 'help' out.
 
BillTIZ said:
That would be the last time that CFI flew with me. If the radio/squawk was set correctly and he changes it, that's bogus.
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After the flight I spoke privately with the newly minted CFI. He defended his behavior. I then informed my friend of what was going on. He was ticked off but being meek mannered, he wasn't gonna do anything about it. A lengthy discusion ended with me say either he do something about it or I would. After a 2nd flight like the 1st my friend informed the FBO owner. That CFI packed his bags that week.

I take it a step further than not flying with that CFI again. I bust their chops on those behaviors so no other students will suffer the same crap.
 
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