First Passenger As A Private Pilot (Or Lack Thereof)

[kimberlyanne546]

So . . .

Let me start by saying "I knew this would happen."

I am NOT taking this personally - well I'm trying not to - because I understand the issue at hand.

Here is what is going on:

I had two friends and also my Dad - so three people - all "ready to go" on an awesome sight seeing flight around the Alcatraz / Golden Gate Bridge area, weather permitting. My plane seats only myself and one passenger, so I planned to do one of these flights each month for three months - something I could hopefully afford by taking on a second job working at my Mom's office on the weekends for some side money.

Then came the checkride, on Sunday, and I passed.

Logically, I contacted the first person with a date / time for the flight - after I get back from the POA fly-in at 6Y9 for Labor Day. I texted this person (who had solo'd years ago but never continued training due to cost) on Sunday - asking them to be my very first passenger.

The texts were very wishy washy and finally said "Let me think about it and get back to you" - which eventually turned into "you should ask your Dad to be your first passenger."

So: failure number one.

I contacted my Dad, who seemed very excited to go, and confirmed with the flight school that I could have the plane. This was looking great! Then today, I called him again to firm up the time and - wouldn't you know it - he said that his wife was not comfortable (he re-married). He told me he could not be my first passenger, but maybe if I did this exact same flight a few times she "might" change her mind down the road.

So: failure number two.

In the meantime, I had been texting the OTHER friend who is not a pilot. I have not heard back from that friend AT ALL and that is very "unlike" this person.

Conclusion: they were all "being nice" during my training but now they are very nervous to go up.


Result: I am keeping the plane, keeping the reservation, and either doing the flight by myself (if weather allows) - or finding another passenger. I have a few other people I could ask who are on my Facebook friends list, but . . . there are reasons I may or may not want to see them (it is complicated).


Have any of you experienced this? I do not want to "force" the issue on people and am happy to fly alone. I just thought it would be cool to share my flying - something I've worked on for a long time - with the people I care about.

 

[Jim Logajan]

I may look into this to be a "helper" (co pilot) though.

Maybe this has already been mentioned, but in case it hasn't, you could ask around to see if anyone in your area is working toward an instrument rating and needs a safety pilot when practicing simulated instrument conditions in VMC. Then offer to act as one for free. As a private pilot, you would be able to offer to do this in most training airplanes.

Gets you in the air; and some of it may even be logged:
http://www.askacfi.com/184/logging-safety-pilot-time.htm

 

[Jim Logajan]

This is an interesting thread and I fully expect to run into the same situation when I get my PPL and start carrying passengers. A lot of people say they'll fly with me, but I would bet they back out. I am looking forward to flying with others, but I have a feeling that most people I'm going to fly with will be those who are more seriously interested in flying and are part of the community, though one lady I work with says she "loves heights" and flying and is excited to go so who knows.

Kimberly, wish we were closer, I'm in pretty much the same situation as you (generally speaking), would be nice to fly with some fellow female pilots. Don't seem to be too many around!

Good luck and happy flying!

I see this is your first post - welcome to PoA! Have fun in your training!

 

[Jim Logajan]

Girl pilots is a myth! Same as "Girls on Internet" They simply do not exist! :-D

I've yet to see a female GA pilot. There were few regional airline female pilots that I remember from my airline flights. But so far, the only indication that girls do fly is an occasional woman on CTAF (shared between few fields).

When I first started flight training - in gliders - my CFI-G was a woman. But she was a veterinarian in her day job and did the training (on weekends) because she wanted to. (This is her: http://www.kpflight.com/rena1.htm)

When I rebooted my training (I had to put aside completing the glider training for a couple years) I switched to airplanes and used Gleim material to self-study and get a computerized sign-off for the written, but went to http://www.takewinginc.com/ to actually take it. There I met this woman:

I did not take my flight lessons from her primarily because I had already met a person associated with http://www.abouttimeaviation.com/ who I had told I would try first. I have no doubt I would have been just as satisfied with Dorothy Schick as my CFI.

All this is a long-winded way of saying that if you haven't seen any women pilots, perhaps you should double-check the effectiveness of your deodorant.