Soaring With Sagar - February 2010
The First Passenger
By Sagar Pathak
Gratitude with a little attitude…Sagar takes his dad flying for the first time. Of course, it was his dad who encouraged his son’s lifelong love of aviation. The attitude: Sagar demonstrated his skills with a steep turn and dad held on tight! (Sagar Pathak)With my ticket in hand, I was ready to fly to the far reaches of the globe. Or at least as far as my Piper Cherokee could go before I had to land for fuel or return the airplane to the flying club. But before I flew away, I noticed that somewhere during the last seven months of my training, I had accumulated a substantial list of people who wanted me to take them flying: Friends, cousins, co-workers, random cute girls in the bar, and a few not so cute ones.
All wanted to go for a flight and see the world from a new perspective. I was mentioning this to one of my pilot friends and we had a good laugh about it. But then he eventually asked me who is going to be the first person I take up. Honestly I had not given it much thought until then. Unfortunately my airplane was not big enough to take everyone up at once. So I would have to choose.
I slept on it and realized that the one person who had not asked me to go flying was one of my biggest supporters: my Dad. He was the one who took me to my first airshow as a kid, bought me toy airplanes and listened to me complain about my flight lessons even if he didn’t understand a thing about p-factor, side slips, or VOR navigation. So I had my answer. And with Mom overseas for a few months, it was a convenient decision-maker between the two.
Now just had to find a clear day in between the storms that have soaked the San Francisco Bay Area. On the horizon, there was a break on Saturday. I checked to see if the plane was free at the flying club, and it was. Now I had to choose where to go. My Dad has never flown in a small airplane before so I wanted something nearby, but still exciting. During my training, it was always a treat to fly along the coast. When I set out to get my pilots license, I always envisioned taking my friends flying along the coastline on a “bay tour” over San Francisco. Since I was not comfortable going through the Class B airspace of SFO, I decided to just take Dad to Half Moon Bay for lunch.
Starting 24 hours out, I must have called the Weather Briefers a half dozen times to make sure it was going to be clear along the coast. All was looking good. On Saturday morning, I finished up my volunteering at the Moffett Field Museum (http://www.moffettfieldmuseum.org) and called up my Dad to grab some lunch. I had told him the day before that we were going to meet up, so I knew he was free. I told him I’d pick him up in 30 minutes and to dress warmly.
As he got in the car, I asked him if was okay for some diner food. He was up for anything. Little did he know! I told him I had to make a quick stop at Palo Alto Airport before we ate. And as we pulled into the parking lot, I told him that we were actually going for a “$100 Hamburger”. After I explained what that was (fly somewhere to have lunch and the cost of the food ends up being $100 including the food and airplane costs), a nervous look crept up on his face. But he was also very excited.
After a quick tour of the flying club and one last weather check, I took him out to the plane and pre-flighted like I had done dozens of times before. I got into my Warrior first and then helped Dad get in. I showed him how to use the seatbelts, pointed out the emergency exits, how to adjust the volume on the headsets, and we were good to go.
He didn’t say much as we taxied out to the run up area, so I figured I’d tell him everything I was doing to put him a bit at ease. These are the flight controls, here is how I tell how high we are and how fast we are going. This is the fuel gauge, just like in a car, and here is the accelerator (throttle), etc. I think that analogy helped. And before he knew it, tower had cleared us for takeoff. One last check of the seat belts and to see if he was okay. Thumbs up, good to go! Full throttle and pull back on the yoke and we were airborne. A quick glance over and I could see the smile starting to show.
Sagar shares the controls with his dad on their first flying adventure together. (Sagar Pathak)We turned west and headed out to the coastline. I told Dad to anticipate a few bumps as we crossed over the ridgeline, but there were none. It was a smooth and clear day. I then asked Dad if he wanted to try to fly the plane a little. He gingerly held the controls as did I on my side. I walked him through some gentle banking, climbs, and descents. But for some reason that was not putting him at ease.
So in my vast piloting experience, I decided to show him that the plane was very trustworthy and would fly no matter what. I proceeded to demonstrate a steep turn followed by pulling the engine to idle to demonstrate its glide capability. Not a great idea. Not at all!
Dad did not say anything, but I don’t think he enjoyed it at all. He faked a smile, but it was clear that was a bad idea to do for a first time passenger. Guess not everyone is as comfortable in tiny planes as I am.
We then proceeded to Half Moon Bay Airport. As we neared, I had made all my position calls needed for an untowered airport and was aware of the traffic in the area. But as we were five miles out, a plane popped up over the ridgeline and called out his position. It was clear that we were on an intersecting course. I announced my position to that aircraft, but did not receive an acknowledgment. Even though I was lower and had the right of way, I decided to do a 360-degree turn and let the other plane go ahead and get some space between us. But in order to do that, I had to do a steep turn 2,000-feet above the ground, over some foothills. As I did that, I could see my Dad reaching for a handle to grab for safety.
We entered the pattern and had an uneventful landing. And as we taxied to the airport café, my Dad was not that hungry anymore and wanted to head back. I think I understood what he was saying and we headed back to Palo Alto Airport.
The flight back was straight and level, and ended in a smooth landing. When it was all said and done, my Dad said he had a great time and was very proud of me, but was glad to be back on the ground. Maybe I shouldn’t simulate an engine out for a first time passenger or do steep turns. But you live and learn.
On the dive back, we stopped off at Taco Bell to grab a bite to eat. After all, we were both still starving.
