The best one yet!

[PPPPP]

Just got back from the first flight with a passenger (my elder son Dan) since the brown book arrived, and ... what a feeling! Two of us thinking "Yippeee, this is great!" The viz was forever, in fact we could see the Isle of Man from overhead Skelmersdale, dramatic-looking cloud cover at 3500 feet, FIS from Blackpool Approach keeping us well informed. Suddenly it hits home now that you have spare brain capacity to look around and enjoy the view that this is a marvellous way of converting money into CO2.

[Aussie Andy]

Good for you PPPPPPPPPPPP! Long may you continue to enjoy the fantastic priveleges of your license, and remember: you must fill the cup of experience BEFORE you empty the cup of luck :O

[dublinpilot]

First flights with a passenger are just the best ;)

[Northern Highflyer]

Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Brings back memories reading this thread. Believe me it keeps getting better too. Have fun. :ok:

[EEJay]

Fabulous feeling!!

I just got my grandsons flying with me after a long wait and it brings those first pax flights back with such feeling.

Incidently the grandsons now have great 'Street Cred' haveing flown an aeroplane.

keep going, keep enjoying it just gets better

[proplover]

Its funny how when we get our PPL's the first thing we do seems to be to drag our nearest and dearest loved ones up into an aeroplane with us! What brave people they are.
:ok:

[Spikeee]

My 1st passanger flight was with my mum. She'd never been in a light aircraft before and is a little scared of flying ne way.

Took off and it wasnt climbing very well. I thought it was just this aircraft as all have their own characteristics. Anyway, i eventually got to the 1400ft where i tried to level out but it just wasnt happening within the power setting limits.

So i thought its just me, and i should sort my self out. So i set a realistic RPM it should cruise at and tried for the attitude but it needed higher RPM (like just under 2500). I've never really felt the engine running rough before but it was more juddery than usual, i didnt take the fuel pump off at all because of it and it wasnt carb icing.

I was about to route over some congested areas and i wasnt happy so i requested to turn back. The app' and tower were very good, they let me come straight back in on 27 (took off on 09) but there wasnt much wind so it wasnt a problem.

My mum didnt lift her head at all. I was trying to get her to look up and have a look around but she wouldnt. I stayed very high on the approach until i was 110% sure it would make it, then realised i was wayyyyyy to high so took full flap out and had a rather steep approach in. Landing was ok though.

Afterwards i talked to a pilot who i know in the area and he's had problems with the aircraft before. Once it was climing out at a very poor rate then the engine coughed and spluttered and pulled them away.

Once on the ground i couldnt stop questionning whether it was just me but in the air i'm was so sure it wasnt, the engineers had a look but nothing was apparent and it was in for its 50hr check in a few hours.

Good experience for me but i was gutted it happened with my mum on board. Not nice for her but she was ok about it.



Spike

[PPPPP]

Its funny how when we get our PPL's the first thing we do seems to be to drag our nearest and dearest loved ones up into an aeroplane with us! What brave people they are.

In my case just the opposite! Dan and Nick have been on at me for weeks to take them flying, Nick would have been along as well but for work commitments. Now the wife is a different matter, I suspect I may have to borrow a couple of wild horses to get her on board....

[Aussie Andy]

A point to bear in mind perhaps when taking family member or friends for a ride with that shiny new license is that you can feel much more nervous yourself sometimes when relatively inexperienced and with the added burden / responsibility of taking passengers.

Its perhaps not a bad idea to do one or two local flights on your own, or better a cross-country or two with a fellow pilot after getting your license just to consolidate.

Another tip is that I (still) use much greater safety margins for go / no-go decisions when flying with friends / family / other innocent victims(!) than when flying on my own or with another PPL. I think it just gives you a bit more cushion mentally when things don't go to plan.

Andy

[dublinpilot]

I agree with AA, however I'm sure I'm not that much different to a lot of people in that I didn't know any other PPL's when I got my licence.

The only people I knew were the instructors, and one or two others who were still training.

And I do agree that you are under added pressure on your first trips, which a passenger. What I did was to go on a route with huge unmistakable turning points, and ones that were very familiar to me as I'd flown over them many times during my training. While they might but boring and unremarkable to see for me, my passenger was on their first trip in a light aircraft, and had never seen the ground from above before, other than from 30,000ft. So it was all new to them. And of course it way much easier for me, which took a lot of pressure off, and made it much more enjoyable.

I still think it was my most enjoyable flight ever. It even beats the Grand Canyon, and that's saying something ;)

[Holdposition]

PPPPP, Super and many congratulations, now for the world to open up for you albeit on a slow learning curve basis. Glad egnh looked after you, just been on a sortie over the lakes myself this evening and the boys kept a learned eye on us as well. Super service as ever, when over windermere at 5000ft saw ballon about 4 miles away over the ridge (honest we did see you and waved:)), great evening for flying and fully enjoyed by pilot and passengers. Take care and will keep an eye open for you, cheers

[andrewc]

Lovely trip the other day...excellent vis, decided to try to
climb up above the cloud cover - alleged scattered at 8000'.

We went up to 9000' and were dipping and swirling around
these huge castles in the air...absolutely excellent.

The haze had cleared with the change in wind direction
and we could see for miles and miles and miles,

Just great,

-- Andrew