Discovery Flight Question - What are you all doing?
Posted by nightlanding@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 10 comments
People not liking, being stressed by, or otherwise not having fun on discovery flights seems to be a thing here. Many of them sound like actual lessons or entrance exams one has to pass.
I never did ANYTHING like that. The plane was already preflighted before the customer got there. We would get in and I might sort of describe what I was doing as we took off and cleared the area. Once away from the traffic pattern, I would reassure my passenger the plane was not fragile nor tricky to handle, they frequently thought only my expert flying and lightning reflexes were saving us from instant death. I would have them try some gentle stuff like straight and level and shallow turns. Usually they were thrilled to be actually controlling an airplane!
The entire idea was that airplanes were FUN and could be flown by regular people. If they were interested I might explain instruments and such, but the flight was not intended as lesson 1 nor an evaluation of the person. One of the better ones involved a girl with her little brother, while she was doing the intro thing he found an oil bottle in the back and started whacking her with it 😄
PG67AW@reddit
I do the preflight with them, because usually they're curious about what everything is. It's also a good chance to ease them into how controls works and that stuff.
After that, they get to do as much as they're comfortable with. Start, taxi, an assisted takeoff, then they're the ones flying the whole flight. I try to coach them to a reasonable position on final (our tower almost exclusively does straight in approaches, so no weird pattern shenanigans). Then of course I do the landing but have them follow along on the controls to see what it's like.
I agree with you, fun is the goal. I've never had an intro flight not be enthused by the whole ordeal. If the client isn't having fun, then the instructor is wasting their money. (I have the same philosophy for "actual" students, too, even if we're working on achieving certain standards.)
WhiteoutDota@reddit
sounds exactly like my disco flights
TxAggieMike@reddit
I think one of us has been sneaking peeks into the other’s playbook.
This is how I like to do my disco flights. (Mirrored ball not included)
dtphantom@reddit
My instructor pre flighted the plane with me there and walked through what he was doing while explaining what/why. Walked through the start up procedures and all the checks. He taxied to the runway and made the radio calls but then when we were on center line he said your controls and I took us off, obviously he had his hands on the controls and definitely was working the rudder. I flew pretty much the whole thing except when he showed me steep turns and stalls.
Unfortunately I started feeling pretty airsick so he landed at a small strip to let me calm down then took off and let me fly us home. He landed while explain the whole process.
I would not have wanted it any other way. If I wanted a simple boring flight I would have booked a sight seeing tour, I'm glad he threw me right in.
Impossible-Bad-2291@reddit
I had 3000 hours logged on MSFS, so I ended up teaching my instructor a few things on my first flight.
TyWh@reddit
My disco instructor let me land the plane. With his help of course. So amazing.
SkyhawkPilot@reddit
I had quite a few disco flights where the student was trying multiple schools. When they flew with me, they were shocked that I let them fly for more than five minutes. Apparently, a lot of schools didn’t let the student do anything, or if they did, they barely let them fly. I always told the person that once we left the airport, they’d be doing as much or as little flying as they were comfortable with.
I’d also let them take as many photos as they wanted, and would encourage them to bring a friend, parent, or SO in the backseat, so they could potentially see if this was a hobby that’d fit their lifestyle.
Ok-Money2811@reddit
I used to preflight with the prospect there, let them sump the tanks, pull the dipstick, etc. basically have them involved in the preflight.
We had a convenient, not too busy airport about 25 miles away, I’d do the usual stuff and let them fly it there if they want once clear of our class B. Do a touch and go there and then fly back to the field. If they felt up to it and got the hang of it, I’d guide them on the pattern entry and ride the controls on landing.
uniballing@reddit
On my discovery flight in the Cub my instructor took me 10’ off of a river doing steep turns below the river banks. Then we did stalls over a big lake. It was awesome and I was hooked!
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
People not liking, being stressed by, or otherwise not having fun on discovery flights seems to be a thing here. Many of them sound like actual lessons or entrance exams one has to pass.
I never did ANYTHING like that. The plane was already preflighted before the customer got there. We would get in and I might sort of describe what I was doing as we took off and cleared the area. Once away from the traffic pattern, I would reassure my passenger the plane was not fragile nor tricky to handle, they frequently thought only my expert flying and lightning reflexes were saving us from instant death. I would have them try some gentle stuff like straight and level and shallow turns. Usually they were thrilled to be actually controlling an airplane!
The entire idea was that airplanes were FUN and could be flown by regular people. If they were interested I might explain instruments and such, but the flight was not intended as lesson 1 nor an evaluation of the person. One of the better ones involved a girl with her little brother, while she was doing the intro thing he found an oil bottle in the back and started whacking her with it 😄
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