new stage

[gotyacovered]

as i move from my current stage, into the operational side of flying, with passengers and such, i was hoping to get some hints, tips, warnings, etc

when was your guys first xc with family? how did it go? how long was it?

how did you acclimate your family to traveling in a general aviation airplane? packing light is going to be our biggest prob. have a feeling i will be taking an extra lite loads to help compenate for my wife

we are planning to fly out to NM to ski and we are going to ship our stuff out there! (flying into Raton/KRTN and driving to Red River).

both of my kids have flown quite a bit, but only from m18 - lit - m18, and local pleasure flights. my wife has only flown with me a couple times, and that was up to drake for games, and she slept on the way back.

is it hard to keep a sterile cockpit?

[FaytownHog]

I think this is a great thread/topic for the newer pilots. I'm interested to hear the answers from the pro's as well.

[bvillepig]

Not a pro for sure but would love to share.
I bought my piper Archer when I had 15 hours. It had 8 and I sold it at 325. I got my private and instrument in it and my wife flew with me one time to Ok City and back. She was supportive but had flown in a small plane years ago with a Doctor she worked with and got airsick.

When we bought the Saratoga we picked it up in Kansas City. The instructor from KCAC flew it down and my instructor, myself and my wife flew it up to sign papers. Insurance required me to fly with an instructor for the first 20 hours. My wife got sick on the way up. Not a good start.

2 days later my wife had to go to Denver for business so my instructor and myself loaded up and took her. Very good trip up there early and back that night. So in two trips I had around 14 hours. We finished up a couple of days later and I was turned loose.

My first cross country on my own with her was the next week to KADS in Dallas. Even though I had flown all over the Southeast in the Archer I was nervous as heck because most of my flights were solo.  On visual approach to Addison I could not see the airport on first pass so got vectored out and brought back in to join the localizer. This time we saw the field and everything went fine.

She started slow but has became a trouper and now sits in the front seat on most flights. She used to sleep in the back. With just her the cockpit was pretty sterile and now 1200 hours in the Toga later she is pretty comfortable.

The first long cross country with my wife, son, daughter in law, and two baby grand daughters was to Orlando. Great trip. Became interesting when they went to an outlet mall just before we left. They dropped me off at the airport to hang around and preflight. I warned them if they bought anything they better ship it back as I could not fit it in the plane. They must have been deaf.

You will always have fun with the packing side of it. No matter how many times you tell a woman or " oops I meant non aviator " to pack light it just does not compute. I will share later.

Take Care and good luck on the check ride. I know you will do well.

[gotyacovered]

Good stuff, thanks!

My wife has a slight motion sickness tendency, so low, hot and bumpy is not good. She hasn't got to sit up front with me yet, I think she will like that better!

Thanks again for the input.

[bvillepig]

She will. Deb has somewhat outgrown her motion sickness over the last few years. In the back she will still get a little motion sick when its real bumpy.

Most of the time we can find smooth air between 5000-10000 even in the summer.

[Flying Razorback]

I have not flown passengers for pleasure but I can tell you that flying passengers and especially loved ones should force you in to your A game for every flight.

Preflights should be more thorough and by the book, you read the NOTAMs just a little closer, you get a thorough weather brief, and you concern yourself with anything else that might affect the flight.

Things get relaxed sometimes and it's easy to let your habit patterns and "experience" take over but when it's more than your own pink body on the line you really do tend to put 100% effort in.

[bvillepig]

Great advice. 

When I have my grand daughters with me it goes to even a different level. There are just so many tools in this day and age for planning and awareness.

[ADAM_713]

Took my brother multiple times with me on cross countries.  On his first ride out of KLIT I did a floater about five mins out and told him the engine was about to die.  His eyes looked like saucers.  I know that I was always more on point with passengers who were not pilots because its you and you alone to catch any mess ups.

[gotyacovered]

Been on two local flights past two days, just stayed around the airport and shot a few touch n goes and today went to Benton, Hot Springs and back to hope. They all did great, wife got queezy on all the approaches, except last stop Hope. Best approach I shot all day. The others were high and I kinda dropped it in, plus it was a little bumpy. They were all greasers, esp our arrival back to hope. It was perfect.

They won't know what to do on a bad one I set the bar too high.

[bvillepig]

Sounds like a pretty good time.

When are you doing your flight to New Mexico ? Have you ever used air nav ?  It is great tool for planning fuel stops. 

[gotyacovered]

Sounds like a pretty good time.

When are you doing your flight to New Mexico ? Have you ever used air nav ?  It is great tool for planning fuel stops. 

If I decide to go, it's Thursday... This Thursday.

Planning M18 - KBGD - KRTN.

I am open to input/thoughts/comments...

KBGD has them cheapest gas ive seen and it's only a few miles south of a direct flight M18 - KRTN. Air nav sounds sweet. I'll check it out.

[theFlyingHog]

I love AirNav. That's always one of my stops in flight planning.

What do you use for planning? I've used DUATS and FltPlan.com. Fltplan is awesome.

[bvillepig]

Check out KCLK or KELK . They are about halfway and the fuel price looks good. Give us a full Pirep whem you get back. 

[gotyacovered]

I love AirNav. That's always one of my stops in flight planning.

What do you use for planning? I've used DUATS and FltPlan.com. Fltplan is awesome.

I use Foreflight, it ties into your DUATS account, works well. My iTunes account is messed up, haven't had a chance to check out airnav yet... But it sounds sweet. I really like Foreflight (thanks again bvillepig) b/c not only the flight planning stuff, but the way it displays A/FD information. It's slick.

[gotyacovered]

Check out KCLK or KELK . They are about halfway and the fuel price looks good. Give us a full Pirep whem you get back. 

Will do.

I called KRTN yesterday and they are only charging $20 per night in the hanger. Thought that was cheap! I was pleasantly surprised with that.

The other family's are flying commercial into albuquerque be interesting to see how the timing works.

[bvillepig]

Foreflight is great !!!  Air Nav is a pretty cool web site.   I have not used the app.

[gotyacovered]

i just assumed it was a app.

it is really sweet. you guys are right once again. took me a few min to figure it out, but that is cool. made me feel kind of good, its suggestion with the most savings has the stop i was planning on taking, actually has it (BGD) in 3 of the top 4 suggestions. good stuff.

i just hope my kids can a)sit there for 2/3 hours and enjoy themselves enough to just chill or b)have enough batteries in their phones, psp, ds's, etc to last the duration of the flight!

[bvillepig]

Gotcha also make sure you read the reviews at the bottom of the page also for the airports.
Some are just opinions but you can also find out neat stuff like whether they have restrooms or courtesy cars.  Lots of good stuff.  Also the fuel page us great.
Take care I am at an AOPA safety wings seminar in Memphis     

[gotyacovered]

Gotcha also make sure you read the reviews at the bottom of the page also for the airports.
Some are just opinions but you can also find out neat stuff like whether they have restrooms or courtesy cars.  Lots of good stuff.  Also the fuel page us great.
Take care I am at an AOPA safety wings seminar in Memphis     

Is that a FAA sponsored thing, or is it AOPA? The guy who did my checkridd was talking about a WINGS program he wanted me to sign up for.

[theFlyingHog]

If that's the same thing I went to at the old IMAX by LIT, man those things are terrible. But supposedly the FAA will take into that into account if they ever hit you with a deal.

[bvillepig]

It is an FAA sponsored by AOPA. The Memphis chapter does a fair job with these. Pretty good turnout. They say close to 200 tonight.  They did make a statement that if you are involved in an incident the FAA does take it into account.  Whatever that amounts to.

[gotyacovered]

the guy who gave me my checkride encouraged me to get signed up. i read about it last night on the faa.gov site.

so did i read it correctly, you will actually get time with an instructor (?) to help improve proficiency? or was that something different?