aarvig
Well Known Member
Having just recently attained my private pilots license I have been excited to share the joy of flying with my family members. This holiday weekend provided the excellent opportunity for that. I gave my mother-in-law and sister-in-law a nice tour of the St. Croix river valley and then returned to give my other sister-in-law a ride. My wife and three year old son wanted to go and since they had both been flying with me I put my sister-in-law in the right seat. She hadn't been in a small plane for over 20 years but had just recently flown commercial so she didn't think there would be any problems. I had just departed 18 and made an eastbound turn when my sister-in-law grabbed my arm and said "I don't think I can handle this anymore." I looked over at her and noticed she was sheet white, sweating profusely and shaking. This all came on very suddenly. I was suddenly aware that I was in an urgent situation. Was she going to panic and open a door, a window or grab the yoke and push it down? Was she going to puke or pass out? I didn't know. What I keenly remember thinking was..."fly the airplane." I immediately contacted the tower; "Anoka tower, cessna 567 is returning to the airport for immediate landing on 18." The intensity of her panic accelerated exponentially and I started to see her grabbing for handholds in the cockpit. I realized that part of my job was to keep her calm. I decided to talk to her in a very easy tone and just described everything the airplane was doing and when it would do it. Thankfully, the tower gave me immediate priority and cleared me to land right away. It felt like forever but the wheels eventually kissed the earth. I literally had to carry her out of the cockpit and lay her on the ground in the hanger in the shock recovery position. It took her a half hour to come down. It was unbelievable but she eventually calmed down. WHEW!! Hind site is 20/20 and one thing I failed to do was inform my wife in the back seat of what was going on. We only had three headsets in the plane between the four of us so my son was wearing it when the incident occurred. My son was talking and talking and it was a real distraction. The plane does not have an intercom to shut off the rear passengers so I cupped my mike and yelled into the back seat "get that headset off him." My wife did as I asked, I didn't explain why (I didn't feel like it was a priority at the time, I needed to fly the airplane and manage my panicky passenger) and all she noticed was the engine power reduction and the turn back to the airport. I didn't realize it but she thought we had an engine failure. Eventually, she figured out what was happening but I think I missed a valuable opportunity to have help in the situation plus I scared her. Lesson learned. While it is hard to screen for this type on sudden onset panic I will definitely be more inquisitive when I bring a passenger on board. Secondly, I will calmly communicate any issues to my back seat passengers. I am satisfied with the outcome but I think I could have handled it a little different. I am wondering if any of you have been faced with this type of situation and what did you do?