newt
Well Known Member
I’ve always taken the view that we’re all only in aviation temporarily, so we have a bit of a responsibility to make sure we’re replaced when we bow out.
If each one of us can find ONE person and inspire them into a life-long love of flying, our numbers will be maintained.
More powerfully, if we each find TWO people to become pilots, our numbers will double overnight.
Sounds easy, huh?
With that in mind, I’ve behaved as if it’s some kind of regulatory breach to fly an RV with an empty passenger seat. It’s usually pretty straightforward to find someone who’s never been in a small plane and invite them for a fly-away day trip lunch, or a trip to a museum, or an airshow, or whatever.
By doing that, I’ve flown hundreds of passengers. When they’ve inevitably asked how much it costs, I’ve always told them I’m going anyway whether they come or not, so they’re not costing anything. Keeping money out of it makes everything simple anyway.
But I also tell them that they’re on the hook for giving me a free flight when they get their pilot license.
“Ha ha. As if I’d ever do that.”
But some of them do, when I successfully infect them. So far I’ve “collected” seven Australian private pilot licenses, a handful of recreational pilot certificates (our rough analog to your Light Sport), and three airplane purchases that I know of.
I try to be more contagious than covid, and I tell them that these free flights can be very expensive. RV grins for everybody!
One of my first victims was Chris. I’d evangelized at him about how great airplanes were on twitter. His first general aviation experience was received when I moved from Adelaide to Sydney, and he accompanied me on the ferry flight when I went back to collect the RV a few weeks later.
We didn’t quite make it all the way — a line of TSRA and TCU behind the Great Dividing Range necessitated a diversion and an overnight stop at Wagga Wagga, and I tied the RV down and we both airlined it home. I went back and finished the trip the following weekend.
Meanwhile Chris went out and booked flying lessons. Since then he’s collected his private, then done more training for tail wheel, aerobatics and formation, before going on and getting his commercial.
And last year he bought a beautifully restored 1946 Cessna 140.
This weekend he was at AusFly at Narromine, and asked if we could do a photo mission so he could get the airplane he owns and the airplane that started it all in one shot.
So we did, and here’s the shot.
I figure my free flight has cost him at least a couple of hundred thousand dollars, and he says it’s the reason he doesn’t own a house.
He seems happy.
- mark
If each one of us can find ONE person and inspire them into a life-long love of flying, our numbers will be maintained.
More powerfully, if we each find TWO people to become pilots, our numbers will double overnight.
Sounds easy, huh?
With that in mind, I’ve behaved as if it’s some kind of regulatory breach to fly an RV with an empty passenger seat. It’s usually pretty straightforward to find someone who’s never been in a small plane and invite them for a fly-away day trip lunch, or a trip to a museum, or an airshow, or whatever.
By doing that, I’ve flown hundreds of passengers. When they’ve inevitably asked how much it costs, I’ve always told them I’m going anyway whether they come or not, so they’re not costing anything. Keeping money out of it makes everything simple anyway.
But I also tell them that they’re on the hook for giving me a free flight when they get their pilot license.
“Ha ha. As if I’d ever do that.”
But some of them do, when I successfully infect them. So far I’ve “collected” seven Australian private pilot licenses, a handful of recreational pilot certificates (our rough analog to your Light Sport), and three airplane purchases that I know of.
I try to be more contagious than covid, and I tell them that these free flights can be very expensive. RV grins for everybody!
One of my first victims was Chris. I’d evangelized at him about how great airplanes were on twitter. His first general aviation experience was received when I moved from Adelaide to Sydney, and he accompanied me on the ferry flight when I went back to collect the RV a few weeks later.
We didn’t quite make it all the way — a line of TSRA and TCU behind the Great Dividing Range necessitated a diversion and an overnight stop at Wagga Wagga, and I tied the RV down and we both airlined it home. I went back and finished the trip the following weekend.
Meanwhile Chris went out and booked flying lessons. Since then he’s collected his private, then done more training for tail wheel, aerobatics and formation, before going on and getting his commercial.
And last year he bought a beautifully restored 1946 Cessna 140.
This weekend he was at AusFly at Narromine, and asked if we could do a photo mission so he could get the airplane he owns and the airplane that started it all in one shot.
So we did, and here’s the shot.
I figure my free flight has cost him at least a couple of hundred thousand dollars, and he says it’s the reason he doesn’t own a house.
He seems happy.
- mark