Rudy,
I didn't have a chance to say it before, but congratulations on passing your checkride! It is a major landmark in your life.
You've gotten lots of good advice already, so I have but a little to add. Anyone flying with you for the first time, and especially anyone who's nervous, is on brain overload when they first strap themselves in, just the way you were when you first started flying. Besides going through your briefing slowly, you can make yourself a passenger briefing booklet that highlights all the things you want to say. I have attached the one that I wrote and use in the 172. You can adapt it to your airplane or use it as a jumping off point if you like. I always tell my passengers that they can look through it before we take off. (This keeps them busy during the runup.)
When I was new at taking passengers, I made a mistake with my youngest daughter and took her on a VERY bumpy ride to Connecticut her first time up. I was so eager to show off my flying, and I so wanted to share it with her, that I didn't consider her needs very well. She had pain in her ear from some congestion, and she hated the turbulence. We forget how used to turbulence we become. Anyway, I decided to change my approach for the next passenger.
My middle daughter was afraid to fly with me. It wasn't until she saw that her two sisters were having fun (the youngest gave it another try, thank goodness) that she decided to give it a shot. She was very quiet during the preflight, and when she got into the plane she asked me if we were going to die......hmmmmmm.....and I said, Kate, we don't have to go flying, why don't we go out to lunch or go for a drive? But she said no, she wanted to go. So I told her we'd go up and just go around the pattern once, and she could tell me if she wanted to come down, and I would. We went around once, and I asked her, and she said we could continue. So I left the airport and went maybe 3 or 4 miles and asked her if she wanted me to turn around. She said to keep going. I went down to the beach and said, I can turn left here, or we can turn around.....
You get the idea. I gave her control of our return. She controlled the timing of the whole trip. It worked very well. We flew out maybe 10 or 15 miles before she said, that's enough, we can go back now. And we did. The next time she went flying with me, we went 100 miles and 3 states away for lunch!
I use zippered ziploc bags instead of Sic Sacs. They work well (I got a firsthand demonstration one day).
You were right to wait out the winds!
