Flying Some Super Young Passengers

Almost immediately after posting on social media that I had passed my final check ride and officially becoming a pilot, of course I received multiple likes, comments, and direct messages from social media friends and family, congratulating me on my achievement. In fact, one of those messages came from an old friend that I really haven’t seen or talked to in about 6 years. Richard, an old pal that used to work at the same place as me, had moved away to the mountains of North Carolina several years ago to pursue a different path. We kept up with each other through social media, but that was about it. However, once he saw that I was now a pilot, he reached out to check in with me to see how life has been going. We chatted for awhile back and forth and he expressed interest in my aviation journey. I, of course, didn’t hesitate at all to take him on a flight. I obviously love aviation and am more enthusiastic as ever to fly, and what better way than to do it with other people. There’s something charming for me to see people’s excitement level spike when they fly, especially for the first time. Over the next two or three weeks we kept trying to find a time that we could get together to fly. He lives about 2 hours away from me (driving), yet would only be about a 35-minute flight to go pick him up. However, by flying the additional time to his local airport, it would restrict our total flight time since I could only rent the plane for a set amount of time. So, he decided to pack up, and head to my home airport and takeoff with me here. He asked in advance if he could bring his two sons along for the flight, and I happily welcomed that. I asked their weight information prior to the day of the flight, simply to ensure our weight and balance data was within parameters. I have never flown with a plane full (4 people) before so I wanted to double check. Since 2 of the passengers would be his young children, we were well within the weight limitations of the plane we were going to fly. His kids are homeschooled, so it was rather easy for him to pack everything up and head down and “make a trip out of it”. In fact, after the flight, he found a local restaurant, swimming pool, and stayed in a local hotel with his boys. There wasn’t a rush for them to drive back into the mountains, only to return late at night. We set a time we would meet at the airport and I saw him right on time. We made our way to the plane, pre-flighted, got everyone boarded and buckled, and fired up. Immediately his kids had excitement in their eyes. He did too. We taxied out to the runway, I went over a full abort plan, and we took off.