Passenger Briefing - One More thing to Mention

I'm sure most of us have been surprised by a passenger's action at one time
or another, but my wife (Kelly) startled the heck out of me this weekend.

We made a trip to Texas to visit her school (Texas A&M) to see a football
game and to visit with family and friends while we were in the area. At a
stop near San Antonio, Kelly's brother and our 3 year old nephew were
meeting us at the airport. When we landed, it was fairly windy (10+ knots),
and there was a decent crosswind component which added to the unfamiliar
field, relatively narrow runway, and not a lot of set-back between the
runway and various immovable obstacles to make it a higher concentration
than normal landing.

On final, we could see Kelly's brother and our nephew standing on a taxiway,
about 50' off of the runway centerline, right alongside the numbers at the
approach end. I didn't think twice about this, instead concentrating on
making a good landing. So, as I began the flare about 5' or 10' high, right
over the threshold, Kelly started waving like a maniac at our nephew. The
RV-6 has side by side seating, so her hand was very close to my face and
filled most of my peripereral vision on that side. It was extremely
startling, and I put a pretty good crease in my seat in the moment before I
realized what was happening (and that I wasn't being landed on by another
airplane, or hitting a giant bird, or whatever).

The landing was surprisingly good. On the post landing debrief, I mentioned
to Kelly that she probably shouldn't distract her pilot in the landing phase
of flight by waving maniacally right in his face during the flare.

One more thing to add to my passenger brief.

Great story!! My wife (Kellie also), for some reason on the last
couple of flights has become afraid that we are too low on our
approaches and will not make the runway.... The last time she said "Pull
up you're too low!!" was more annoying than dangerous. I calmly gave her
a quick lesson on what a Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) does
and how the red-over-white means we're all right. :-) As she deplaned
she apologized and gave me a nice kiss... All is right in the world...

Jon Kraus
'79 Mooney 201
4443H @ UMP

Kyle Boatright wrote:

I'm sure most of us have been surprised by a passenger's action at one time
or another, but my wife (Kelly) startled the heck out of me this weekend.

We made a trip to Texas to visit her school (Texas A&M) to see a football
game and to visit with family and friends while we were in the area. At a
stop near San Antonio, Kelly's brother and our 3 year old nephew were
meeting us at the airport. When we landed, it was fairly windy (10+ knots),
and there was a decent crosswind component which added to the unfamiliar
field, relatively narrow runway, and not a lot of set-back between the
runway and various immovable obstacles to make it a higher concentration
than normal landing.

On final, we could see Kelly's brother and our nephew standing on a taxiway,
about 50' off of the runway centerline, right alongside the numbers at the
approach end. I didn't think twice about this, instead concentrating on
making a good landing. So, as I began the flare about 5' or 10' high, right
over the threshold, Kelly started waving like a maniac at our nephew. The
RV-6 has side by side seating, so her hand was very close to my face and
filled most of my peripereral vision on that side. It was extremely
startling, and I put a pretty good crease in my seat in the moment before I
realized what was happening (and that I wasn't being landed on by another
airplane, or hitting a giant bird, or whatever).

The landing was surprisingly good. On the post landing debrief, I mentioned
to Kelly that she probably shouldn't distract her pilot in the landing phase
of flight by waving maniacally right in his face during the flare.

One more thing to add to my passenger brief.

Kyle Boatright wrote:
I'm sure most of us have been surprised by a passenger's action at one time
or another, but my wife (Kelly) startled the heck out of me this weekend.

We made a trip to Texas to visit her school (Texas A&M) to see a football
game and to visit with family and friends while we were in the area. At a
stop near San Antonio, Kelly's brother and our 3 year old nephew were
meeting us at the airport. When we landed, it was fairly windy (10+ knots),
and there was a decent crosswind component which added to the unfamiliar
field, relatively narrow runway, and not a lot of set-back between the
runway and various immovable obstacles to make it a higher concentration
than normal landing.

On final, we could see Kelly's brother and our nephew standing on a taxiway,
about 50' off of the runway centerline, right alongside the numbers at the
approach end. I didn't think twice about this, instead concentrating on
making a good landing. So, as I began the flare about 5' or 10' high, right
over the threshold, Kelly started waving like a maniac at our nephew. The
RV-6 has side by side seating, so her hand was very close to my face and
filled most of my peripereral vision on that side. It was extremely
startling, and I put a pretty good crease in my seat in the moment before I
realized what was happening (and that I wasn't being landed on by another
airplane, or hitting a giant bird, or whatever).

The landing was surprisingly good. On the post landing debrief, I mentioned
to Kelly that she probably shouldn't distract her pilot in the landing phase
of flight by waving maniacally right in his face during the flare.

One more thing to add to my passenger brief.







Yeah, well my husband (a pilot in his own right!) decided when I was on
short final to our NC grass runway that is 175' over the lake (i.e.
there is nothing in front of the runway but a cliff) decided to quite
loudly SCREAM (IMHO) HEY! LOOK! which immediately put me into a slight
panic expecting to see another aircraft in my windscreen. I yelled
"WHAT?!?!?!?). He said "the boat docks are here". I didn't hit him as
I still had to land the airplane and I was WAY OFF my game by this
point. I was a bit fast but still parked in the front yard (1,500' down
the 3,000' runway).

NO YELLING ON SHORT FINAL!!

Margy

Yeah, I had something similar. I think it's kinda sexy when a woman grabs
your arm and pulls up close to you. My girlfriend is a wild Mediterranean
type, and she tolerates flying pretty well. But on the first few landings,
just as I was getting ready to flare, she reached over and put a vice grip
grasp on my right arm and leaned over against me. Although there's still a
little language barrier, I think she understood not to do that again.

The landing was surprisingly good. On the post landing debrief, I
mentioned to Kelly that she probably shouldn't distract her pilot in the
landing phase of flight by waving maniacally right in his face during the
flare.

One more thing to add to my passenger brief.

You haven't lived until you've been hopping charity rides all day during the
summer and on the last flight of a LOOOONG day you hear a yell from the back
seat, "Hey, Jim" and turn around to get a camera flash right in the face.

Jim



"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
. ..
I'm sure most of us have been surprised by a passenger's action at one
time or another, but my wife (Kelly) startled the heck out of me this
weekend.

("RST Engineering" wrote)
You haven't lived until you've been hopping charity rides all day during
the summer and on the last flight of a LOOOONG day you hear a yell from
the back seat, "Hey, Jim" and turn around to get a camera flash right in
the face.


Tired ...2:00am local time....zzzzz.

....been hopping charity rides all day.....zzzzz

.....flash right in the face ...zzzzz.

http://www.froggifts.com/waycoolfrogs/flasher.jpg
zzzzz ....."Hey, Jim" .....zzzzzz


Montblack

In article ,
"RST Engineering" wrote:

You haven't lived until you've been hopping charity rides all day during the
summer and on the last flight of a LOOOONG day you hear a yell from the back
seat, "Hey, Jim" and turn around to get a camera flash right in the face.


I've been trying to remember who posted a story about their passenger
taking a picture while flying in and out of the soup near embedded
thunderstorms. One problem with that was they used their flash.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

Not just passengers. I knew a helicopter pilot who was
hired to fly a newly wed couple from the church/reception to
a honeymoon hide a way. Just as he lifted off to a hover in
the dark parking lot, the wedding photographers snapped a
picture from 50 feet in front of the Bell 47. Those
professional strobes are very bright. Luckily he was able
to close an eye and keep fairly steady until he was able to
fly away.


"Bob Noel" wrote in
message
...
| In article ,
| "RST Engineering" wrote:
|
| You haven't lived until you've been hopping charity
rides all day during the
| summer and on the last flight of a LOOOONG day you hear
a yell from the back
| seat, "Hey, Jim" and turn around to get a camera flash
right in the face.
|
|
| I've been trying to remember who posted a story about
their passenger
| taking a picture while flying in and out of the soup near
embedded
| thunderstorms. One problem with that was they used their
flash.
|
| --
| Bob Noel
| Looking for a sig the
| lawyers will hate
|

"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...
You haven't lived until you've been hopping charity rides all day during
the
summer and on the last flight of a LOOOONG day you hear a yell from the
back
seat, "Hey, Jim" and turn around to get a camera flash right in the face.

Jim

Was this planned to be the last ride of the day, or did you decide that
during the flight?

I think I would have practiced some stalls after that.

Kyle Boatright wrote:
I'm sure most of us have been surprised by a passenger's action at one time
or another, but my wife (Kelly) startled the heck out of me this weekend.

We made a trip to Texas to visit her school (Texas A&M) to see a football
game and to visit with family and friends while we were in the area. At a

Heck of a game, sorry about the outcome though
--
Cheers,
John Clonts
Temple, Texas
N7NZ