Birthday surprise
 

I took my girlfriend flying for the first time today in a small general aviation airplane. We flew out of KSEE in a A36 Bonanza. The pilot was an experienced instructor and I let her sit in the front seat - a fact not wasted on her and won me many bonus points! :)
We flew out over the beach from La Jolla down past Seal Beach and back below 500'. The weather was perfect and it was very smooth. We had some close passes with some banner tow aircraft and others cruising the beach. I can see how you get complancent with TCAS or radar :eek:
Then we flew inland around Ramona and he let her have a shot at the controls. She did very well and I was impressed - though she did get serious tunnel vision. In the end he even let her land back at Gillespie.
In the end - it was a great experience to share my passion for flying with her (even from the backseat) and I might have even created a future flight student!

USMCFLYR

It was certainly a nice day for it here...of course I had to work.

Is there still a restaurant at Gillespie? They seem to be hell bent on closing all the airport eateries around here.

I didn't get to see much of the airport. The airplane was in one of those private hangars - where it looks like someone lives in the top half. VERY NICE! Also saw a beautiful Stearman in the hangar next door. He offered a ride too but I wanted to be with her on the first time. I'm sure she would be thrilled with the opportunity to fly in the Stearman in the future!

USMCFLYR

sounds like part of my life.

worked ouf of gillespie for a little while. grew up in seal beach.

should of landed in compton...you know, just to say you did.

I had to look that one up. It certainly is surrounded by humanity!
Flying VFR around San Diego certainly was a different experience. I wouldn't have tried it without some local knowledge onboard. ACT liked to use geographical features (especially the piers) while tooling up and down the coast. I liked that though (once you learn the landmarks). The pilot even used land marks when reporting his position to tower when coming back to Gillespie from the east. I look forward to getting back to this type of flying in th future hopefully.

USMCFLYR

The introduction of laypeople people to flight is something I do a lot of in my glider towing and skydive-driving hobbies. Watching people return from the drop zone after a first dive or get out of the glider as they return from one of these flights is truly gratifying. It serves as a reminder to me of what I got into aviation for.

Last night some skydivers wanted to do a night hop so I dropped them out at 10,000 feet over the airport. All they could see were the runway lights down there, but the divers all managed to land in the drop zone as though it were a normal daylight hop. Everyone had a great time. I think it is important to see new people getting their introduction to flight because it makes the routine work of being a pilot worth all the attention to detail and safety.

I never flew night time jumpers. I didn't do it for long and only flew the free fall jumpers from 12,000', but that short term job stills gives me some good memories. It was an interesting way to make a few bucks over the weekend. They offered free jump lessons too - but I didn't want to risk injury just months before training.

USMCFLYR

"Goods and others"... I haven't heard that phrase, but it must be the same post flight debrief I do with my own students. In the FAA world the students want to get through their programs as fast as possible because they must pay for every hour, and in military you have students who are hopefully motivated by nature and money does not matter quite as much. One thing is for sure for both groups: flying is wonderful. I can do 25 hops in a row where a hop takes about 30 minutes, and still be enthusiastic about going out to do some more flying. My body will finally say hey, you're tired and not safe for further action, but my heart always says let's go do it. By the way, McConnell AFB has a bunch of tanker drivers who like to skydive at our drop zone and they are quite the lively group!

Political correctness term that TopGun institued on us :)
What a student did RIGHT OR WRONG, or calling it GOOD and BAD just is too 'in your face' nowadays - so GOOD and OTHERS (not necessarily BAD or WRONG) is the newest buzz term. They probably wouldn't like my debrief style when I look at the kid in the face and say - "man.....you really messed that up!" :rolleyes:

I've always heard about instructor burnout at all levels of instructing in the military - and I'm sure it is no different in the civilian world. I often red other posters on this site talking about how boring it is to drill circles around the pattern day in and day out. Most often the advice is to instruct advanced phases - instrument, multi-engine, do BFR and IPCs, etc.... I agree. I am very lucky that in my position I have the chance to instruct many different phases, and inside those individual phases there are many different and interesting flights. Throw some maintenance flights or the odd opportunity for some admin cross-country legs (like ferrying jets) around the country and I'm coming up on 7 years instructing and have never had the problem of instructor burnout (fingers crossed that I don't).

USMCFLYR