Brave on the water, but not in the air!
I was living on my sailboat in Texas...my neighbor on the next boat helped me sort out the rigging. I know that he had during a storm at sea played an important role in a rescue, a very brave man indeed....so I invited him along for a ride in a rented Cessna.
When we were nicely established over the bay, I invited him to take a turn on the controls....
To my amazement, he freaked out! evidently thinking one had to be a qualified pilot otherwise the plane would drop out of the sky! I showed him that in fact the plane was flying itself, being properly trimmed....and eventually he did gather his courage, but scared and glad to hand it back. The last person I would have expected to be so unhappy having a go...
At the time I had about 500 hours in power, and was a gliding instructor, so not a beginner.
Moral of the story. You never can tell who may freak out, even possibly trying to hold up the nose when stalled! So if you are inexperienced as a solo pilot, may be a good idea to wait a bit before letting a friend fly until you have a fair number of hours in your logbook.