Taking newbies flying...

"Stefan" wrote in message
...
Have I got this right? You are not a flight instructor. (If you are,
please correct me.) Despite this, you hand over the controls to a
stranger. To a stranger nonetheless who sits the first time in his life in
a small plane. And you don't just hand over the controls at altitude
(which admittedly I have done myself), but right on the ground and you let
him fly the take off. Then you let him fly a 180 at low altitude. And all
this *with a passenger in the back*!

Yes, you screwed up royally. But for a different reason than you think.

Stefan

As Shakespeare said, "Much ado about nothing".

There was nothing "wrong" or dangerous in what Dan did Stefan. Pilots do
this all the time, and few of them are instructors. In fact, the first time
I went up for a ride, (AT-6G) I did what could be stretched into (if I was
REALLY stretching that is :-) a reasonable facsimile of a decent slow roll.
Pilots each have to exercise responsibility if and when they hand over the
controls to a passenger as to where and when during the flight this
"changeover" takes place. A pilot letting the front seat pax handle the
controls for a while with the airplane at altitude in cruise poses no
particular threat to anyone. What's REALLY important is that the pilot in
command of the flight not allow ANYTHING to occur during that flight that
either frightens the people flying with that pilot, or endangers the flight
in any way.
Hell, half the pilots I know who aren't instructors can't wait to let people
fly their airplanes during a flight. That single thing has probably been
responsible for more people learning to fly than anything else I can
remember :-)
Dudley Henriques