After getting my pilot’s license, some of my colleagues from work became super interested in flying and general aviation. In fact, one of the project managers I work with expressed an interest in potentially starting flight lessons himself. In the spirit of my heightened excitement, I offered to take him flying. He had only been in a small plane just once before in his life, so I took the opportunity to show him the enjoyment of flying again.
We decided to fly on the Monday afternoon before July 4th holiday. We met at the airport and made it out to the plane. I did my usual pre-flight and tried to explain what I was doing to him, as much as I could. I knew he wouldn’t fully grasp or understand it right then and there, but I could at least expose him to the process. I explained the full passenger brief to him after filling the plane up with fuel, and we started up. On the taxi out I began explain some of the flight controls, instruments, buttons, and switches. We reached the end of the runway and performed an engine run-up. I gave him a full pre-takeoff briefly that included my abort plan for any abnormalities. We departed Monroe and headed southeast. We really didn’t have a specific destination but just went out for some flying time. We decided to go for a landing at Pageland, then Lancaster County. I showed him some minor maneuvers and we headed back to Monroe. While this certainly wasn’t an instructional Discovery Flight, nor a very long flight, it was nice just to be in the air and see someone else appreciate aviation as much as me.
