"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...
...offers endless opportunities for screwing up the experience for them, as
I've demonstrated yet again.
"Uh, better now," said M_, attempting a brave smile. "That turn was a little
scary!"

What M_ wasn't saying, of course, was that she had just spent a few seconds
fearing for her life because an apparent lunatic had turned over control of an
itty bitty airplane to her virtually clueless boyfriend, who promptly put it
in a bank 500' from the ground.

It may have been the turn itself, more than who was controlling the
aircraft. I did commercial glider rides for a few years, and I learned to ask
about the past experiences of my passenger before the flight. If they had no
experiences in light aircraft, I would always remind them that an aircraft banks
when it turns "like a bicycle".

Try to remember back to your first ride in an airplane and what your
sensations were. The experience for a first-time passenger in a light plane can
be very disorienting, and turns are the biggest problem. One thing that helps
is to direct their attention outside the airplane to some landmark that they
will recognize.

Vaughn