Take a passenger for the first flight post-checkride?

Take a pax on the first post-checkride flight?

  • Yes

    Votes: 57 82.6%

  • No

    Votes: 12 17.4%
  • Total voters
    69
AV8R_87

AV8R_87

En-Route
Joined
Feb 1, 2024
Messages
3,624
Location
NE USA
Display Name
OC
A friend recently passed his private checkride. His plan is to take a family member (no flying experience) with him for his first post-checkride flight.

Would you do that? I recommended against that, advising him to fly a few hours by himself to validate his solo ADM and planning skills. No more CFI looking over his shoulder now.
 
Would I do it? I don't have to speculate. I took my wife up 3 days after my private checkride. But, to be fair, my checkride was not at my home base, so I did have a whole 0.2 of post-checkride solo flight ;)
 
Why not? The instructor that gave me my basic CFI training told me, and it's a principle I hold to as a CFI: When you sign off a student as ready to pass the private pilot practical test, ask yourself if you would let your wife and kids ride with them. If the answer is not yes, then they're not ready to be signed off.
 
Jim Carpenter said:
Why not? The instructor that gave me my basic CFI training told me, and it's a principle I hold to as a CFI: When you sign off a student as ready to pass the private pilot practical test, ask yourself if you would let your wife and kids ride with them. If the answer is not yes, then they're not ready to be signed off.
Click to expand...
That's exactly what my instructor said to me after I was done. "I thought to myself, would I let my wife be in here with you right now? My answer was yes"
Gave me a huge confidence boost.
 
I posted this in another recent thread, but the first person I took flying after I got my Private got to experience an accidental spin. Fly more carefully than I did. :-)

Took my father flying twice, and my mother, once. On my father's second flight, the engine burped...probably carburetor ice. I turned the carb heat on, but that was the last time my dad was interested in flying.

My mother didn't want to leave the airport environs (small uncontrolled strip). I took off, and did one right-hand-circle around the field. She was in the back seat of the Citabria, and I think she had her nose on the window the whole flight, watching her husband far, far, below. She never expressed an interest in a repeat.....

Ron Wanttaja
 
My kids were my my first passengers right after checkride.

My mom is one of the few people that I would NEVER take up even if she thought she wanted to.
 
I voted yes. But….I took my son up the day after. My knowledge was not good enough to predict/know about low level afternoon turbulence. He ended up not liking it until his second flight with me YEARS later. My vote for yes was because I still didn’t know squat enough for dozens more hours and to say no for that reason would mean I wouldn’t take passengers for years (and some might say I still don’t know squat enough).
 
20 minute flight home from the check ride, took my wife for her first small plane ride. 43 total hours in my log book. :):):)

At 80 hours, I had completed my first 1600 mile cross country with my whole family

120 hours, an 1800 mile cross country.

I learned to fly to go far places fast. 80% of my log book time is long cross countries. :)
 
Depends a lot on the training quality, confidence/competence of the PIC, and the mission.
 
It was so long ago that I passed my checkride, I don't remember when I took my first pax.

I do remember that after adding my instrument rating it was some time before I had a pax in IMC.
 
I took my Dad up as soon as I passed the checkride. At that point I was probably really good at stick and rudder stuff, but had very little concept of how to actually go anywhere in an airplane - dealing with FBO's, transient parking, real world weather, all that stuff.

But flying locally with my Dad in the airplane? Very safe, IMO.
 
I'd be less concerned about the safety of it than turning off the passenger to flying in small airplanes. The typical sightseeing flight is at a low altitude (bumpy and possibly hot), noisy (unless you have headsets for all), and involves maneuvering to see things (nausea-inducing). Plan carefully; a bad flight can cast a long shadow.
 
I like to suggest going somewhere they've been before so they don't need to invent things or seem unconfident.
 
I'd recommend a simple, safe flight near the airport doing something basic you are well-familiar with. Your confidence and skill will improve over time, but I recommend keeping it basic at first.

My first passengers, made within a few days after my private checkride, were three in number, in a C172. In the right seat I had my instructor, a soon-to-be Continental pilot (which dates me). In the back seats I had two advanced students, both Brussels Air trainees working the their muliengine ratings in California (and both from Belgium). I was ferrying them to another airport for my instructor who was also instructing them in twins. Needless to say, I was in good company. The flight, just a few minutes long, went perfectly - I was thrilled beyond my dreams.
 
There's enough solo time prior to the checkride. The checkride is a demonstration of a minimum level of competency.

It's tempting to think that you'll be safer with more experience, but I think most people don't continue flying as frequently as they do during training, so their skill level actually goes down somewhat even as their experience level goes up. For that reason, I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea to have a passenger along for the first post-checkride flight. However, they should not be easily freaked out, or a fearful flyer, and if they're someone that you want to fly with a lot, you might want to consider talking with someone with more experience about how to make it a good experience for your passenger, because a passenger who has a bad experience on the first flight is going to be hard to get to go again.


I had to go look - I knew my first flight after my checkride was getting a checkout in another aircraft type so that I had as many rental possibilities as possible. The next flight, a few days later, was getting a checkout at another airport.

After that - I flew 6 different pax in the next 10 days. Mom and Dad didn't go up for 3+ years, and separately then - Mom had a friend in high school whose parents were both killed in a plane crash, so my parents never flew on the same flight unless the entire family was on that flight.
 
davela said:
I'd recommend a simple, safe flight near the airport doing something basic you are well-familiar with. Your confidence and skill will improve over time, but I recommend keeping it basic at first.
Click to expand...
This is true regardless of your experience level as a pilot. People in general aren't super comfortable with small planes. Keep in mind that they're inexperienced passengers too!

I've found that the best "intro flights" for pax go like this:

1) Show them and talk them through the preflight inspection. That helps to give them confidence in the machine, as well as reassuring them that you know what you're doing.
2) Give them a briefing!
a) Ask about their experience on airplanes before - I have taken some people who had never even been on an airline flight, and they didn't know that airplanes bank when they turn, and the first such person I took got a little freaked out by it. As a result, I'll talk through all that sort of thing beforehand if they've never flown before.​
b) If they have been on an airline or other flight before, let them know that you're going to give them the same safety briefing information and that it's required for everyone. That should help keep them at ease when you start talking about what to do in the event of an accident.​
c) Talk to them about any potential turbulence and what causes it. I think a large part of the reason people find it uncomfortable is that they don't know anything about it and it seems dangerous. That said, try to do these intro flights when turbulence isn't as much of a concern. Avoid late afternoon on a spring day, for example. Also avoid any time where heat will be excessive.​
d) Keep things light - I like to tell people that they need to have their seat belts on for taxi, takeoff, and landing, but that they should keep it on the whole flight because there's not exactly anywhere they can go! Another thing I like to say is that "aviation is always an adventure, it's just not always the adventure you planned on."​
e) ***MOST IMPORTANT!!!*** I like to tell them that the purpose of the flight is for them to have fun, and that if at any point they're no longer having fun, to let me know and we'll come back and land. It gives them some control over things. I think a lot of people's fear of flying is rooted in the lack of control, so allowing them to have some control really helps.​
3) Pick one or two local landmarks as well as their residence to fly over. Take off, go to each one, avoid more than maybe two 360s to avoid motion sickness with inexperienced pax, get back to the airport and get on the ground before they even have a chance to think about being afraid.
4) Know where to point them if they want to take lessons afterwards. :thumbsup:
 
ateamer said:
The DPE already confirmed that he’s ready to carry passengers. Why would you second-guess him?
Click to expand...
I really don't think the DPE or the CFI who signed you off thinks you are ready or that 80% of the poll answers say it OK is an answer to a PIC/personal minimums decision.

It actually scares me to apply that philosophy to a newly-rated instrument pilot.
 
I did a few solos after I got my license. My wife's first post-checkride flight was to fly me out to dinner (W28). She did fine without my assistance. She did let me have the leg going back to IAD.
 
It's been a few decades, so I had to go back and look.

My first flight post-checkride was a Warrior rental checkout. The next flight was a scenic with my brother and a friend--I'm sure it was similar to midlifeflyer's Quabbin Reservoir loop. I remember that flight as the guys were psyched to see those fishing areas from the air.
 
Before passing my checkride, I had friends standing in line. Day after I took two besties up in a C152.
My wife wouldn't fly with me for a year. She later confessed she thought I'd fly like I drive.

Eventually, I sold the sports car and bought a truck.
 
I took a mechanic with me before and after the checkride.
When I dropped him, I just parked the plane. It's one of the things that I regret. I could have flown 30-40 minutes to celebrate
 
So I shouldn't have piled 3 friends in to the 172 and flown up to Steamboat Springs for a late dinner right after finishing my checkride?
 
That's the whole point! One of the biggest privileges of the PPL is the ability to carry passengers.

That being said, if you're a nervous Nellie and your hands shake when you fly, and you feel like you've somehow lucked out everytime you land safely, then might not want to take passengers until you get over that. But by the time you take your checkride your confidence level should be high.
 
I'll admit my confidence level was not that high right after my check ride.
I thought I flunked my check ride because it felt like sloppy flying.
The DPE said I didn't do anything unsafe.
I was thrilled that I passed first try.
I flew by myself at first in a rental that I learned to fly in.
My late friend was the first to fly with me after about a month of getting my ticket in a rental.
I bought my own 172 and flew it for months/years solo and had a blast by myself. It was so rewarding gaining confidence and skills on my own with no distraction with a lightly loaded aircraft.
My wife waited a couple months to go with me, she is a wise women. lol
It was years later that I took my own Mother flying.
 
Last edited:
I flew home from my check ride and told my mom to meet me at the airport.
The weather was calm. We did a lap around the pattern, flew 10 min North to do a lap around the lake, back to the airport.
It was great. Was I a safe pilot at that time? I dunno but I was proficient VFR in that little airspace at the time.

Would I get in the backseat of a small plane with a new private pilot today? Not likely.
 
Did that myself forty years ago. College roommate. Within 3 minutes of taking off he informed me he wasn't feeling well. Later let me know that unless he was driving himself, he still got carsick as an adult! Yeah, better screening in order.

Today I won't take someone up unless they specially as several times. I don't like pilots who impress friends and families into going with them - lots of fear out there, and a new pilot should really be flying around solo for a while IMHO.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top