One of the great thrills after first getting your pilot’s license is pleasure flying with family and friends. The level of questions and interest from your passengers will run the gamut from ‘what makes the plane fly?’ to ‘are we almost there yet?’  But one element of flying with passengers is something you probably haven’t trained for.  Unlike takeoffs, landings, climbing, turns, etc. --- which you practiced endlessly --- the passenger briefing becomes vital when you are now the official PIC.

Just as your instructor tried to demonstrate in your flying lessons, you should project a safe, professional attitude when you fly.  You need to ‘set the tone’ with your passengers; perhaps even days before your planned flight. Your approach should be, ‘yes, this flying thing is really fun and exhilarating, but I always try to take a professional approach to it. So we won’t be flying under any bridges… or buzzing your house… or doing any maneuvers that you wouldn’t expect to experience on a commercial airliner.’ If you want family and friends to fly with you again, I highly recommend that those first few flights should always be super-smooth... no demonstrating stalls, steep turns or wingovers... treat these flights like a gentle demonstration flight for someone who has never flown before.  As Greg Brown writes, “tell the new pilot to compare piloting of airplanes to riding motorcycles. Driving a motorcycle is a blast, but riding on the back is a total drag, because the passenger is totally out of control. Passengers have the same reaction to a wild ride on their first airplane flights, as the back-seat rider on a motorcycle.”

You likely remember from your knowledge test studies, portions of rule 91.107(a)(1). This mandates that as PIC you:

“ensure that each person on board is briefed on how to fasten and unfasten their safety belt and shoulder harness”. 

I think it was Jerry Seinfeld who joked that this portion of the airline passenger briefing “is for people who haven’t been in a car since 1962…”  Funny stuff, as most airliners do have a simple, metal tongue and clasp mechanism that is fairly intuitive to use. But you’ll eventually fly some light planes with seat belt systems that even confound you the first time you encounter them, including 4-point seatbelts in many LSA’s and 5-point military-style harnesses in most gliders.  Be sure you demonstrate, and perhaps even help each passenger fasten and unfasten their seatbelts, before you settle into the left seat.

In addition to the operation of seatbelts, you’ll want to cover some emergency information --- just in case. Of course, how to unlock and open each door and window… where the fire extinguisher is located; how to unlatch and use it… what they can and can’t touch (if your front-seat passenger tries to move their seat forward, tell them not to grab onto the yoke to pull themselves forward!)… how they can help (look for traffic!)… and what they can expect to see and hear along the way.

I’ve done a fair amount of volunteer flying for Angel Flight West, and as I have gone through two Commercial rating check rides (Airplane & Glider), I kind of have the passenger briefing thing down to a routine.  First, I made a few notes on what I wanted to cover with each new passenger. I typed these notes and attached them to my airplane’s checklist. This allows me to give the entire briefing concisely in a couple of minutes, without leaving out anything important.

Here are my passenger briefing notes that I have attached to my checklist.

After demonstrating how their seatbelts and doors operate, and a quick discussion about what kind of weather (visibility, turbulence, etc.) we might expect, this is the gist of what I would say to each passenger.  (This all happens before engine start).

“You need to keep your seatbelt fastened while we’re taxiing, taking off and landing. And, since there is no room to get out of your seat and wander around during the flight, you might as well just keep it fastened during the entire flight!  You will hear various sounds; bells and whistles, etc.; these are normal and are generally just audio indications of approaching a target altitude, or traffic in our area, etc. In the very unlikely chance of a fire on-board, we do have a fire extinguisher located here… and this is how you release it from the bracket and activate it. In the unlikely event of an emergency landing, I showed you how to open the door, but you can also exit through a window if you can’t get the door opened. The windows are made of Plexiglas, and you can actually break them out with your elbow, if necessary. Remember, if you do have to exit the plane after an emergency landing, run backwards from the plane (away from the propeller!). There are some things I can do to make you more comfortable; there are a lot of air controls, sun visors, audio adjustments, etc., so let me know if you would like me to adjust something to make you more comfortable. Remember, you can’t use your cell phone at all until we land again, and of course there is no smoking on the flight at all (and no flash photography at night!).  You can help me during the flight by letting me know about any other airplanes you might see in the distance.  I’ll be glad to answer any questions you might have along the way, but if it seems like I’m ignoring you during take-off and landing --- it’s because I am!  I need to focus on what the guy in the tower is telling me, and won’t be able to talk during take-off or landing.  If you feel like you’re going to be sick, let me know… I do have sick bags in each seat pocket. (for the front seat passenger: And if you’re going to throw-up, please try to do it away from the instrument panel!) Any questions or concerns, or anything I haven’t answered?”

The entire briefing usually takes about 2-3 minutes to present. I usually go through the entire monologue with each person the first time they fly with me, and then on successive flights, just present the highlights (seatbelts, doors, cell phones, no talking below 3,000’, etc.)

One time, on an Angel Flight from Santa Monica to San Diego, my two passengers spoke only Spanish; no English. When I met them in the Angel Flight office, I quickly fast-forwarded to the passenger briefing portion of the flight (I speak only enough Spanish to get fed in a Mexican restaurant).  As I had gone through the passenger-briefing process many times, I essentially had it memorized. So, finding an AFW employee who was bilingual, we successfully completed the passenger-briefing at the Angel Flight offices!

© 2010 Garry Wing