Raf
Cool lady! I hope her husband recovers.
Cool lady! I hope her husband recovers.
My wife has no formal training but has flown right seat with me on everything from C-150s to Citations. I’ve talked her through many descents to near landings and she can get anything to the ground safely. It may be the same with this lady and she did an excellent job.
My wife tried flight training once, back in the early 2000’s when she was in her 30’s, but the cocky, 20 y/o CFI tried to make her land on her first flight, which ended-up in a shouting match, her calling him a “f*&$(*$g kid”, and telling him to “land GD MF airplane”. She never took another lesson (and that CFI got fired as it was the 3rd or 4th time he had done that to a lady on an early flight).
Fast forward 14 years later, I finished my ticket and we bought our first plane. We have since upgrade to a PA32 Turbo Saratoga. She loves to fly the plane, works the radios, will pick up FF, and follows along with procedures and briefs the approach with me in IFR. She has created her own “Incapacitated pilot” checklist, and on long cross-country flights in the vast airspace of Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico - we practice that checklist. We’ll cancel FF, I’ll act as ATC giving her vectors, and she will fly the airplane and can get it on the group. It is a big confidence builder for her. She has since gone up with a few more mature CFI’s, and they all try to convince her to get her ticket, but she is now 59 years old and is content to just sit right seat.
My Maule has Autoland.
Never tested, and likely not pretty, but it’s guaranteed to land the plane by itself, somewhere, sometime, every time if God forbid I’m incapacitated,
No Autoland? The Pinch Hitter (or Flying Companion) program lets non-pilots (like your wife, or anyone in between) step into the cockpit and learn the basics—no license needed! It covers controls, navigation, a/c stabilization, and emergency procedures. But the first and most critical lesson for the companion is—move the incapacitated pilot’s head outta the way! I got this!