Telling It Like It Is: Passenger Briefings

I once was asked to take the local sheriff and one of his strapping 250-pound deputies on a surveillance flight over the county. "Have either of you flown before?" I asked. The sheriff said he had. The deputy upped the ante. "I have flown in the back of an F-4. No problem," he said proudly.

Great, I thought. Clear, cool day. No turbulence. Gentle turns. Should be easy.

After 90 minutes of uneventful flying, the sheriff turned to me and said, "Time to go back." Roger. I pushed the throttle in, the airplane accelerated, and the deputy threw up everywhere.

Ten minutes later, the deputy was on the ground apologizing to everyone involved, including the airplane. "Guess I shouldn?t have had those two granola bars this morning," he muttered.

"Just glad you didn?t have three," the sheriff answered. Then other deputies gathered and started giving this poor guy the business as only law enforcement officers can.

I couldn?t have stopped the guy from getting sick, but there were plenty of bags on board. I should have taken the time to let everyone know where they were and how to use them, just in case.

If there is one item on the preflight checklist that is consistently underplayed or overlooked?if it?s on the list at all?it has to be the passenger briefing. Three reasons for this shortcoming spring to mind. First, as student pilots, we tend to rely on our flight instructors to tell us what to do, and only rarely do instructors tell students to formally brief them with respect to the conduct of the flight. Second, many operating handbooks fail to include a passenger briefing on any preflight checklist. And, as we all know, if it?s really important, it must be on the list! If it?s not on the list, you can ignore it. Third, having to tell any passenger over the age of 3 how to operate a seat belt may seem like the FAA?s way of making sure pilots treat passengers like morons.

But while there are many reasons why we don?t brief our passengers, there are even more reasons why we may wish we had. Over the course of my relatively uneventful stint as a pilot, I could have prevented many in-flight problems with a comprehensive passenger and crew briefing.

Have you ever flown with a chatterbox? These people can be annoying beyond belief. They narrate the entire flight. If you don?t tell them just what constitutes acceptable conversation, things could get testy when you are trying to talk to the tower and they want to ask about urban planning projects coming into view below. Sometimes it?s just their way of dealing with nervousness. Talking to them about the flight?describing how you?ll be manipulating the power and controls, what maneuvers you?ll do, where you?ll be flying, who you?ll be communicating with?while you are on the ground can help assuage their fears and preserve the peace.

A back-seat pilot can be a worse distraction than a chatterbox. Some sound like a stream of consciousness coming from the passenger seat. "Could be jumpers. Better monitor unicom. Better monitor approach. Get local winds. Start the descent about here..." Mercifully, some intercoms have an isolation switch for just such occasions. In lieu of literally turning your passengers off, don?t hesitate to tactfully remind them that you?re the pilot in command and would appreciate being allowed to exercise that privilege.

Equally important is the crew briefing you give to a pilot whom you?ve asked to share duties. Try this, for example: "Please do not take any actions without first informing me. In the event of an in-flight emergency, I?ll fly the plane, you read the emergency checklist." I once made an entire flight with taxi and landing lights flashing like police lights after the right-seater activated the pulse lights without telling me. I could have avoided the whole embarrassing situation by asking him, before I ever started the engine, to announce any setting changes.

In fact, taking five minutes to brief passengers can prevent a whole range of embarrassing and potentially dangerous situations. Once you get used to the idea, it can make almost any flight go more smoothly.

I offer my own passenger briefing checklist as a model (page 34). It doesn?t cover everything explicitly contained in FAR 91.519, such as access to oxygen, but it does touch on all points for the aircraft I fly. A few of the rules are mine, such as no smoking and shoulder harness wrapping. (Wrapping refers to looping the shoulder harness once around the seat belt before securing the tab around the metal button. This usually keeps the harness from coming loose during flight.) Other items are a product of the airplanes I fly, such as omitting the part about losing cabin pressure.

My checklist has grown steadily as I?ve encountered different situations. Modify it to fit your needs, then attach a copy to your preflight checklist, and turn to it as you begin your preflight inspection. I strongly recommend a good passenger briefing as a safety item and preserver of your sanity.