During the Holidays my sister Kátia was visiting from Brazil, so on December 26th I had the opportunity to take her up for a flight.

This was her first time flying General Aviation so she opted to fly locally. She wanted to get a feel of flying and see if she would like it before going on a longer trip. It turned out to be a good idea because she gets dizzy easily, even riding in the car or bus.

We departed Pitt-Greenville (KPGV) and flew to Washington Warren (KOCW) where I did a touch-and-go. Watching the video you may notice that when I started taxiing in Greenville I mistakenly announced that I was taxiing to runway 28! Greenville does not have that runway – my bad! I think what happened was… I was listening to the weather information and heard that the wind was coming from 28 and I kept that number in my head for the best runway to use. When I made the announcement I said runway 28 instead of 26.

After the touch-and-go in Washington I turned left to fly over the river and show the houses with the boat docks to my sister. From there we turned North to fly to Martin County (KMCZ) for another touch-and-go.

As we were flying to Martin County I heard the announcement that parachute jumpers were about to jump out of the airplane in Washington. They were supposed to be about 11,000 feet up in the air but I was unable to contact them visually – I think I was already far enough from the field to see them.

After the touch-and-go in Martin County we headed back to Pitt-Greenville for a full stop. Luckily my landings were decent and I didn’t embarrass myself in front of Kátia! Later she told me that she preferred my landings to the ones from the airlines! (*grin on my face*) – I think she doesn’t like the abrupt braking and reverse thrust from the airliners.

A self-criticism from this flight (besides announcing the wrong runway) was that in two occasions I delayed removing the flaps after take-off. The procedure calls for flaps up after 400 feet and I failed to do that twice on this flight. While this didn’t represent a bad risk on this flight, I have certainly made mental notes to not to repeat the same mistake in the future.

Overall, I enjoyed the opportunity to introduce General Aviation to my sister and I look forward to having her on-board again in the future!

YouTube Link: http://youtu.be/k7R7IsWJiTk