Following on from the "taking passengers" thread, when taking passengers up what things do you cover in your pre flight briefing with them ?

I usually cover :

How door works

Fire extinguisher and first aid kit

When not to talk, i.e. take off, circuit for landing, during RT chat.
If they don't feel well to say so and we can return.

Crash position (never sure whether this is a good one as they need to know but then again I don't want to worry them)

Feet clear of pedals

I am sure I could improve on this list so over to you...............

I have a checklist on a laminated card which I run through, then give to the passenger to hold. From memory:

Door - opening/closing
Seat - adjusting
Seatbelt - fastening, adjusting
Controls - keep clear
First aid kit & fire extinguisher - locations
Take off & landing - don't talk
Emergency actions: brace position, don't look up or evacuate before I tell you to (Ditch actions if going over water, plus operation of lifejacket)
PTT switch - location (see next bit!)
Traffic - I will call all traffic I see. If you see something I haven't seen, tell me! (Prod me and point if you can't remember the clock code.)

Then on the back it has:

PILOT INCAPACITATION
Set transponder to 7700 (show them this - don't bother putting it on standby first, this is an emergency!)
Press PTT switch and ask for help!

If they're a regular passenger I teach them to fly straight & level so they can keep the plane under control while I'm doing this.

Not sure if the last bit is really necessary - I'm not elderly/fragile!

Tim

I usually explain that grass is usually bumpy compared to tarmac, and so the take off may be a bit more lively than in an airliner.

Otherwise just the very basics: door, harness, calling other traffic, feet off pedals, knees away from stick.......and to call out any discomfort sooner rather than later. Overloading a perhaps already nervous passenger with too much info is not a good idea.

With another PPL as pax I always make a point of telling them that if they have a problem with anything I'm doing, they should not hesitate to tell me. I would certainly tell them, if the roles were reversed!

Slip

In a 152:

"If the fan stops and we end up landing in a field, some time before we do actually land I will tell you to open your door. That's right, whilst we are still in the air. Don't query such an apparently daft instruction, I'll be busy, just do it."

tmmorris

Have you ever had a passenger decide not to come after all after hearing the "pilot incapacitation" bit? ;)

" If you're not happy at all or feel ill, we can land ASAP, it's not a problem, we don't HAVE to get there" (where ever there is!!)

And avoid steep turns or sudden climbs and descents for first time pax.

Talking thru what u r doing helps.

Give them the check list to read out -makes them feel part of it.

Offer them the stick, if they've flown b4 or not. "Easy, isn't it!"

DOC

1. "get in"

2. "sit down"

3. "shut up"

4. "scream if you want to go faster"


Never had a complaint yet:}

Seat Belts and seat locks.

Door(s) and exit sequence / routes.

Life Jackets...how to use and how important not to inflate until outside the aircraft.

Life Raft...how to use.

I have some briefing cards that cover the brace position and also the above topics. The attention of passengers is brought to the cards.....some light reading/ distraction while I get on with the start/taxi phase.

Things I never say;

ILL, Sick, Unwell or anything similar

Crash, Accident, Ditching, Forced Landing.


The above are covered by;

"If at any stage you are not enjoying the flight or feel uncomfortable then let me know so that I can make it better"

If we land away from the airport, If we land on the water.......

Regards,

DFC

Thank you Monocock, I've just adjusted mine accordingly...:E :E :E

Suggest adding:"Please make sure you keep your feet away from the rudder pedals - this is especially important when I am landing or taking off"Andy

Monocock,

Works well with examiners too!:ooh:

No-one's refused to go yet, no, but I did get one person scream when I did a touch-and-go - it transpired that she didn't understand what it meant when I told her I was going to do one, and she assumed something had gone wrong...!

Tim

Yeah, I was only joking really.

My first question is always "Have you flown in a light a/c before?"

A surprising amount of people haven't. If the answer is "yes" I always give them a good brief of what to expect and it is surprising how they remain intersted without their eyes glazing over. I describe how it will be different from a "Holiday Jet" in terms of noise, buffeting, bouncing over bumps on take off etc as this seems to be the only thing they have to compare it to.

I once asked a first timer what it was that he found most scary during the flight. His answer surprised me. He said it was when I pulled back the power on final approach. People seem to think that a/c stop flying if the engine goes quiet. I make sure I warn people on the descent that the engine noise is about to get quieter and it seems to work.

As distressing as it may sound, giving a passenger advice on pilot incapacitation is quite sensible. There are cases of pilots suffering non life threatening inflight incapacitation. Ironic really because in that situation, a passengers actions will determine how life threatening things become. Knowing where the PTT is is a huge life saver - at least someone outside knows of your problem. 7700 will let a controller see where the problem is. I doubt that the average non pilot passenger will be able to cope with much more than that, but it is a start.
There are all the stories about pax who save the day in this situation and without knowing the very basics, they wouldn't stand a chance.

MAPt

...about briefing passengers? Well... I think all of the above can be mentioned. I probaly forgot to mention the "do not talk on take off or landing" bit the other day.... I was up with my other half and just on the way back, about to land (3-400 feet), she went "watch watch, what are you doing...?" (it was a bit bumpy) to which I replied "shut up!" :( followed promptly by my apologies...;) . The landing was very smooth and she enjoyed the flight....she also accepted my apologies;) ....! Hopefully she will be back up with me soon!
Cheers :)

If they haven't been in a light aircraft before, they probably haven't been on an airfield either, so:

Watch out for invisible props, hover-taxying helicopters etc. Stay close to me...

So, some of you tell your passenger to assume the brace position in an emergency? Is this the standard thing to do? Won't they get in the way of the control column when you're flaring into that field?

Just asking, as I'm a bit ignorant in this (any many many others) department.

R

Earlier this year Mrs PhilD and I took some old friends up flying for the first time. I had been looking forward to the brief for some time as one of the passengers was a ex BA stewardess with thousands of flights experience, right up to a few years on Concorde.

With both the passengers installed in the PA28 it was time to get my own back:

'This is your seatbelt - to fasten insert this bit in this bit...'

and

'This aircraft is equipped with (pause and point) ONE emergency exit'. 'Now take time to locate the exit nearest you, bearing in mind it could be behind you'

and

'Your lifejacket is under your seat'

and finally:

'If there is anything our cabin crew can do to make your journey more comfortable let us know. Now sit back, relax and enjoy the ride!'

Being a Cub flyer, my brefing usually includes a couple of oddities like:

'that round thing is the altimeter, I may ask you to to twiddle the little knob as we're going along - cuz I can't reach it from back here!'

and

'As we start the take off you may feel a little lump in your back... it's not me being pleased to see you - it's the stick'

Kingy

Phil that must have been such fun :D

I flew the channel for the first time this year and gave my passenger a brief about ditching. He's flown with me quite a few times and was cool about the whole thing, asking about things so that he was clear of exactly what would be required. In the briefing, I explained that if we did have to ditch, we would try to do so as close to a yacht or small boat as was possible, so minimising our time in the water.

As we turned out over Folkstone he nervously pointed out that there wasn't anything smaller than super tanker for fifty miles either way:uhoh:

Bar shaker

Maybe you could have landed on the deck of said super tanker. :ok:

Best briefing I've ever received was on a commercial helicoptor ride over the grand canyon. It was a 7-seater aircraft I think (about that size, anyway), pilot plus 6 pax. Before we were allowed out onto the ramp, an assistant did the briefing (presumably while the pilot was pre-flighting or something).

The whole thing was extremely light-hearted, but the briefing started with a demonstration of how to use a seatbelt (using one of those replicas similar to the ones that airline stewardesses used to use before the briefing was done on video):

"Now, I know you've all flown in airliners before and you all know how to use a seatbelt. But the FAA say that I have to show you again, so, just to keep the FAA happy - you do your seatbelt up like this [and he demonstrated it very quickly], and undo it like this [he demonstrated this quickly too]."

Certainly got everyone's attention, and a bit of a laugh, and we all listened to the rest of the briefing much more attentively (which included things like keeping clear of the tail-rotor, which I'd imagine most pax are far less familiar with than a standard airliner seatbelt!)

FFF
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Parachute briefings tend to wake up even the most blase of passengers. :p