You shouldn’t take loved ones flying with you if…

Alright guys what I have to say today is a little controversial, you may not agree with me but it is a very good question so I want to give you my direct and h

ones

t answer so the question comes from Jamie and I was able meet Jamie through my five day email course that I launched about a week ago and so far over 100 of you have signed up which is amazing and during those five days I share the most impactful lessons I've learned, both good and bad as an aviator. You can learn from the good things and avoid my mis

take

s, so Jamie responded to one of my emails, and by the way, at the end of this video I'll tell you how to sign up.

I really think you will find many things. It's worthless, so stay there, but Jamie asked me this and said, Hey, can you talk about where in aviation you felt comfortable

flying

with your partner or your child? Now this is a timely question. My wife and I are really looking forward to it. our first child in June, which is really strange to say is ready or not, is coming, so you know, thinking about

flying

with your wife and your child, or your

loved

one, your best friend or something, you know what moment you feel comfortable. do so this is a big question that gets asked a lot and my

take

on it is you know a lot of people come at this from a security perspective so at what point am I ready?

Am I ready for that? I can, you know, put another person's life at risk, which you know doesn't sound too dramatic, but I think a lot of people won't say that, but that's where they're coming from, you know? There's a small chance of accidentally hurting someone I care a lot about, so if you're asking that question and coming from that perspective of at what point am I no longer at risk of hurting this person, then I think. You're doing it the wrong way because I think if you don't take someone flying because you're just trying to keep them safe and in a terrible scenario you accidentally hurt them, but you think carefully if I do it.

I'm flying alone, you know, so at least it would hurt me. So I'm going to say something a little radical here. I don't think you should fly alone and not all of you will agree with me on that, but think about it. I think if you're saying you don't want to take your girlfriend or your best friend flying or something, because in some crazy scenario you don't want to hurt them, you know, I think you're devaluing yourself. your own life because think about how much it would hurt them if they lost you, if you were flying alone and something happened and they lost you, you know, I think if you're worried about that, I don't think you're ready to do it. be a pilot and fly solo and that's totally fine, but go spend more time with an instructor, build that level of confidence now, what I will say is if you're thinking you know, yeah, I feel safe, I feel safe, I feel good. flying alone, but just the added pressure or distraction or just you know the weight of carrying someone else, particularly someone I care about, with me it's just a distraction, so that's something else, I think it's totally normal and that's why I want to talk to that and give some advice from my own experience on how we can get rid of some of those nerves, not from a safety perspective, without saying "oh man, I hope I don't hurt this person" and you know, it's a crazy scenario. , unfortunate, but more like gosh, okay, I've got someone on board, maybe I'll change my procedures, you know, or my thought process, or it's just a distraction, so how do we fight that?

I think there are a couple of things I would recommend and the first one. is that whenever you are taking a passenger, especially a

loved

one, I strongly recommend that you remember that while you may be ready to fly with them, they may not be ready to fly with you and I have Came across this when I got my license. I was very surprised by the number of people who did not want to fly with me and to this day I have been flying for 16 years and I learned that it has nothing to do with me.

Like I have a great reputation among my friends and family for being a really safe conservative pilot. I try really hard to keep everyone super comfortable every time they fly with me and I even continue to be like my mother-in-law. Law Marty, if you're watching this, he doesn't want to fly with me yet just because he likes the concept of being in a small plane, man, that's not his thing, so I've had to learn, hey, I don't do it. I don't have to impose my love of aviation on someone else, so the reason that belongs in this conversation is because if you are trying to take someone flying who doesn't even want to be there, I promise you that it will be a distraction for you and it is one that you know you can avoid and stuff, so you know, realize that not everyone wants to fly with you.

My first passenger, actually, was my father and it was right after my check trip, I literally landed, I got my certificate and My dad was waiting at the airport because he's a pilot and we got on and flew, it was an incredible memory, it's like one one of the best landings I've ever made, so you know, I got lucky on that one, uh, and it was great. moment, but since then you know that not everyone wants to fly with me, so that's the first thing, you just know that not everyone will want to fly with you, so choose who you know you want to fly with first, part two.

One piece of advice I have is when you go flying with someone, don't do anything new, don't try new maneuvers, don't show off to them, you might be able to go somewhere new, but don't try new things. It's not the time or place to do that and it will be distracting, you'll know you're not really sure how they'll react, for example don't do things that are easy to do with negative g if you've never done them before. with people um it's just not the time to do it, I'm sure it will be an unnecessary distraction. The third tip and this is in line with not doing anything new is to inform your passengers and your loved

ones

about what is going to happen now, obviously you need to inform them from a safety perspective, but what I like to do is tell them before that we arrive, even before, actually, well, let me back up, what I will do is I will put them on the plane, let them in and then before I even sit in my seat, I inform them and then I also inform them about how They know what the taxi will be like, what we can do on takeoff, when I need them to be quiet, when we can talk about that kind of stuff, so even before we arrive.

No, I don't have to be in pilot mode yet, I just tell them what to expect and that also helps me know what to expect and remember that this is just a normal flight that we are not going to do. I'll be doing something different and we're not going to be um there's just not this extra pressure it's just a normal flight so I love letting people know when they're all strapped in before they get on the plane it helps them stay calm it helps me to rest easy and we're all on the same page about what's about to happen, so definitely spend some time giving your passengers some really great information.

The fourth piece of advice was given to me by my first flight instructor and he said, Charlie, one day when I know you have a girlfriend and you want to take her flying. Never ever scare her on the plane because she will never fly with you again and I really took that to heart. You know, there are all these horror stories. of people scaring their friends or something or trying to look macho and showing off and that's not the time to do it, never scare someone because they won't want to fly with you, it's an unnecessary distraction, you just don't do it.

It is not necessary to do so. The fifth tip is to remember that you are the pilot, not the stewardess. Sometimes, if you know, bringing someone on board can feel like a kind of open house, honestly, like when we were, you know, in school. your parents come over, you want to show them your desk and show them where you keep your pencils and stuff, and you know that's the part of the playground that we like to go to, those kinds of things you may want to show and tell, and that can be a distraction in the air and therefore you know if you are busy, never be afraid to do it.

You know if you have functionality in your communications stack that can isolate you as a pilot so if your passengers want to chat or whatever and they won't stay quiet uh you need to isolate yourself like you don't have to be the entertainer you don't have to be the one. host or the stewardess uh throughout the flight your main goal and responsibility is to be The pilot first, so don't let that be a distraction. You have the freedom to say, "Hey, I'm stacking the command here." If I need you to be silent, you need to be silent, if not, I can silence you and, uh, and you know. just don't let a distraction happen, ultimately you are still in control of the safety of the flight if you feel that bringing someone on board will add a distraction for you as the pilot and affect the safety of the flight then I would definitely spend more time flying just just to develop a higher level of confidence with the procedures with muscle memory and that way when you bring someone with you, it's not really a distraction, it's just a fun addition, right, it increases the joy. from flying that you can share that with them and again, if you're nervous about bringing someone with you because you're scared and a little bit about hurting them, then I would definitely fly more with an instructor to develop that level of confidence. where it's not a question of safety it's simply a question of confidence in the procedures and your level of concentration, that's how I would approach the topic so I mentioned the beginning of the email that Jamie reached out to me because he's on my fifth series email of the day which you can access by going to planescademy.com join the slash j-o-i-n and uh, it'll get you started and I share with you the most impactful lessons I've had in 16 years as an aviator the good the bad aircraft ownership training tips all of that, so I'm pretty honest and upfront about what I've done right and what I've screwed up along the way and I really hope you can learn from it.

I can respond to those emails and I'd love to meet you and see how I can help you, so go to planescademy.com and join and I'll be able to talk to you like Jamie did and I look forward to meeting you. So thanks for watching, see you next week.