Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Pax Briefing

In response to Flyaway's comment,
"a while back my instructor emphasized the passenger briefing portion of the
checklist. i didn't realize what all that involved until i read the FAR more carefully"

I thought I'd post the passenger briefing method that Husband's first instructor taught him. Husband passed it on to me, and I always use it to make sure I cover everything.

S- Seatbelts... they work like the ones in a car and are required for takeoff and touchdown
A- Air vents... two are located directly above you. Turn to the right to close, turn left to open.
F- Fire extinguisher is located between the seats. Lift up on the handle to release.
E- Exit-- through the door. Lift up on the handle to unlock and lift up more to open.
S- Survival kit. We have one in the baggage compartment of the plane, should we need one!
T- Traffic and Talk. Your big job is to point out traffic to me either by pointing or telling me. Talking- if I hold up my hand, then that means I need to focus on something-- either what ATC is saying or the task at hand, etc.

I think it's pretty interesting that one of the things that we're taught as student pilots is how to talk to passengers about the flight. At first I didn't understand it-- and I felt pretty silly saying it to my instructor; after all, he knows everything in the briefing! He made us say it every lesson for a long time. After a while, I think he realized that I knew it cold, so he stopped making me say it. But the first time I had a passenger, I was pretty glad I had practiced it so much.

Keep the shiny side up!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

we do a "down to up" flow at my flight school. starting at the floor and working outwards and up... like so:

point at fire extinguisher- here is where it is located, it appears charged, here's how you use it etc.

point at seat belt- how to fasten it, how to adjust it, how to unfasten it.

point at yoke- positive exchange of flight controls, also who is pic and who is really in charge in the event of an actual emergency.

point at door handle- how to close it, how to open it.

point outside- in the event we need to exit the aircraft on the ground for an emergency, do so at a 45 degree angle to the rear of the aircraft

point out front- keep your eyes outside, help look for traffic, let me know if you see anything

point at upper right portion of panel- no smoking

look at passengers- "any questions?"... by looking at them, you can tell if they got freaked out and big-eyed by the use of the word "emergency" and the mention of the possibility of fire :)

i find that by doing that physical flow, it's harder to forget anything. same goes for pre-maneuver checklist in the seminole... down-to-up and then right to left like so: fuel, flaps, cowl flaps, primers, mixture, props, throttles, engine instruments green, alternators, master, lights, fuel pumps, mags... can you tell what i am studying for?