Commercial Pilot: Dave O’Connor (long Day)

Great Job!!!  Hard work paid off in the end and this is the look after a very long day of flying.  Keep the greasy side down!

New CFII: Tate Baloun

Great Job!!!       use more automation!! (HAHAHA)

Passenger Briefings

PASSENGER BRIEFINGS
A student pilot longs for the day when he or she can fly with passengers on board. Training flights are a good time to practice a passenger-briefing technique that conveys required safety information and inspires confidence in you as a pilot. Having the pattern down pat will earn you brownie points on your private pilot or sport pilot checkride. The designated examiner will expect you to treat him or her like any nonpilot passenger as you prepare for flight.

Don’t treat the briefing as a housekeeping detail. Go beyond the basics. “FAA regulations require two specific tasks each time you take off with a passenger. The first is to brief your passengers on how the seat belts work. The second is to notify the passengers that seat belts must actually be fastened. That’s in FAR 91.107(a)(1) and FAR 91.107(a)(2). Without doing these things you can’t take off, land, or even move an aircraft on the surface,” wrote Alton K. Marsh in the March 2007 AOPA Pilot “Answers for Pilots” column. He also reviews the FAA’s recommended passenger briefing checklist.

Familiarizing passengers with aircraft features enhances safety, so verify that they really know how things work. “If the door has more than one handle, explain the differences and show all passengers—even those who will be in the rear seat—how to use them. Have each passenger close, lock, and then open the door,” Charles Wright suggested in the September 2004 AOPA Flight Training feature “Straight talk.”

Technically, pilots are required to “ensure” that required briefings are given. In practice, pilots deliver briefings, which John Yodice considers from the legal perspective in “Pilot Counsel” in the October 2004 AOPA Pilot. He offers a reminder: “Pilots tend to become casual about the briefing because we often carry people who are familiar with the operation of seat belts and shoulder harnesses. But we shouldn’t be too casual. There are accidents on record where a person in a panicky situation had difficulty releasing the seat belt. Be especially careful with first-time and inexperienced passengers.”

Words of wisdom: Delivering a good passenger briefing is an important skill for a pilot.

AOPA ePILOT ,

Volume 7, Issue 38 • September 21, 2007AOPA Online:

http://www.aopa.org/members/files/pilot/epilot/ft/2007/070921epilot.html