The Level Turn

摘要

Where I come from, we call it a "Discovery Flight." It's a short flight that gives a non-pilot an introduction to the flight school and flying in general. "You'll take the controls!" is a time-honored way for flight schools to market the flights, which I really enjoy doing. Some of the customers have never been in an airplane at all, and most have never been in one as small as a Cessna 172. We're supposed to fly for 0.5 on the Hobbs, but I usually stretch it to 0.6. It's a lot of fun to see the joy that people get from their first ride in a personal airplane and, perhaps, their first-ever flight. Now the shoe is on the other foot: I am as new to Aviation Safety as these customers are to the art of flying airplanes. What's the first thing that I should tell anyone, you or them, about flying? There are so many tempting topics. Most of my recent flying has been in a Beech King Air B200 equipped with Garmin G1000 avionics. I love to talk about this stuff with pilots, but it won't help non-pilots who are about to handle the controls for the first time. They don't need the in-depth training required for the Robinson R-22 in SFAR 73, but if they don't have some idea about what the controls do, they won't have as much fun. And they're less likely to come back for a second flight, much less sign up for lessons.