Since taking my baby steps as a new pilot, i have flown 6 hours on my own in a Cessna 172 and PA28 before feeling i was up for taking my first passenger. After all the great thing about being a pilot is having a key to the world, sort of.
To introduce my friend Rusty to the world of general aviation, i planned a short route to Peterborough Connington. A sweet little airfield.
The sky was clear, and visibility was stunning. As we progressed on the flight, i would let Rusty know all the various things that i was doing, navigating, pointing out key landmarks or reference point to check we were on track, doing the FREDA check, changing frequencies and just enjoying flying with him.
When we got to Connington, we had a nice lunch and made our way back to Cranfield, routing to Stewartby brickworks which would be our VRP to get joining instructions to land on rwy 21, from base. The journey back, we had the sun right in our faces. I tell you this is where you need some good sun glasses which we both had.
Rusty was my first passenger that i have flown with since getting my ppl licence and i am happy that i was able to share the freedom of flight with him. We have experienced many wonderful times together since our school days, for me the flight has to be one of the best ones.
if you want to know more about Rusty and a music fan, you can read about him in the questions in the air section. Rusty has many talents, he is a musician and plays keyboards for Razerlight. He has recently got back from South Africa where he was playing at the Nelson Mandela Aids concert.
his full interview is available by following this link…
http://freedom-in-the-air.com/2007/0...shaw-musician/
the new experience of having the freedom of flying with friends was priceless. I am now planning to take more friends up covering different routes. I think my next trip will be to Wellsbourne...
do check out some of my other news in aviation including my recent visit to The World Health Organization HQ exploring ways in which i can work with them using aviation to help build awareness, raise funds and increase success for eradicating polio, something very close to my heart -
http://freedom-in-the-air.com/
I would like to hear from other forum members as to what is was like when you first took friends or family members flying?