First passenger

The one thing I was dying to do post-checkride was to take someone flying. Anyone, really, I just wanted to show someone how cool this flying thing is. Luckily I didn't get just anyone, I got Ma Soule.

We arrived at the airport, and it was hot, hazy and humid. Was talked with a pilot who was just coming in from a flight with his wife and dog. He immediately told me the haze had visability down to about 5 miles. He also mentioned it was a bad day for a newly minted pilot to go wandering around too much. Yeah, sure, right, how bad can it be.

It was pretty bad. There are certain things I'm very used to seeing while leaving the Manassas airspace. I couldn't find any of them. The horizon wasn't visable, and all I could see was a roughly 5 mile wide cone of the ground. The decision was made very quickly to turn around and get back on the ground. At least Mom enjoyed herself, and felt safe in the plane: