Flight Training - August 2014 - 4

RIGHT SEAT

By Ian J. Twombly
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FIRST PASSENGER FUN

A SECOND CHANCE AT A FIRST IMPRESSION

ll I got was a thumbs up. It was her only response to my early
status check. After a decade of flying together, I knew that
thumb said a lot more than "OK." I suppose I've never fully
appreciated the courage our family and friends have when

they accept the honor of being our first
passengers. My first airplane passenger
was a brave, or possibly naive, teenage friend. Now, a little older and a lot
wiser, I'm a newly certificated helicopter
pilot, which means the person who had
listened to my giddy drivel about vertical
flight for months now needed to experience it firsthand.

THE AUTHOR gives his wife, Sara, a hug after her
first helicopter ride.

There are many great tips out there
about the first flight with passengers,
but most of it can be parsed to one
thing-make it fun for them. In that spirit
I considered everything from a simple
local flight to flying to another airport for
dinner. But we've done all this before in
airplanes, so I had to up my game. And
really, what's the point of being a helicopter pilot if you can't do something unique,
like land at the actual restaurant? After a
few phone calls and a lot of coordination,
we were on our way.
Helicopters are wonderful for many
reasons, but one of the top reasons for

FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

me is that in many light models you can
fly with the doors off. Despite wearing
a dress for our special event, my brave
partner in flight was excited to experience the helicopter in the configuration I
had raved about many times before.
It was about a minute into hovering for
takeoff when I asked how she was doing.
The thumb said things were fine, but that
she was probably a bit nervous. It wasn't
until we were about 1,000 feet above the
ground, cruising along at 65 knots with
the breeze all around us, that she finally
smiled and said, "This is so cool."
Things only got better from there. We
watched wheat fields blow like waves as
we circled the restaurant and set down in
a large grass field bordering the parking lot. A wonderful dinner later and we
were ready to launch. Number two on the
cool things on a helicopter can-do list is
the maximum performance takeoff, that
nearly vertical climb to avoid obstacles.
As we rose over the tops of the trees she
just laughed, a reaction that seemed completely appropriate to me. I did the same
thing when I was learning to hover. It's a
joyful experience.
I've always believed that flying is
something to be shared. There is and
always will be a magic element to beating
gravity, if only for a short time. When
you offer someone a ride in an aircraft,
you're offering them the chance to experience something special, and forever
unique. If that flight happens to be in a
helicopter to a great restaurant with
your wife on your anniversary, well,
that's just gravy.
Email Editor Ian J. Twombly at ian.twombly@aopa.
org; Twitter: ijtwombly; and visit Flight Training on
Facebook.

Publisher | Mark Baker

Senior VP, Media/Editor in Chief | Thomas B. Haines
Editor | Ian J. Twombly
Editor at Large | Thomas A. Horne
Managing Editor | Julie Summers Walker
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Budd Davisson, Rod Machado, Dan Namowitz, Wayne
Phillips, Bob Schmelzer, Jack Williams

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Art Directors | Elizabeth Z. Jones, Jill C. Benton
Senior Photographer | Mike Fizer
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eMedia Editor | Sarah Deener
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Flight Training - August 2014

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