Passenger Brief

During a Wings seminar last week the subject of passenger briefs was raised. Many of our seasoned pilots had wonderful suggestions on what should be included in a passenger brief. I soon found that short of writing these suggestions down I would forget much of it when I actually had to deliver the information to non pilots. The feedback also cautioned about giving too much or too apocalyptic a briefing lest we intend to scare passengers out of their minds. A web search for prewritten passenger briefings came up with a rather short list, which I am including here.

A great summary that one pilot provides to his passengers:
http://secureav.com/briefing.doc

I have adapted my briefing from the above template with some additions from the below collection. Passengers flying with me are encouraged to read this briefing

A more generic (and shorter) passenger briefing card:
http://www.dauntless-soft.com/PRODUCTS/Freebies/SafetyCard/

Suggestions for Canadian bush pilot passenger briefings:
http://ebushpilot.com/sbriefing.htm

Commercial briefing card of a Montana Charter Company
http://www.paragonair.com/public/aircraft/180_PX_Brief.pdf

Civil Air Patrol passenger briefing card
http://www.vawg.cap.gov/safety/passenger_briefing.htm

Incorporated into the checklist for a Piper Archer:
http://www.seattleflight.com/PA28%20Checklist.asp

Last, but not least, I got some great input from some veteran fliers to consider passenger comfort in the briefing. One of the guys had a novice passenger assume the white nuckle position when he slipped his plane on final. Somehow his guest hadn't anticipated that you can fly an airplane "sideways". Other passengers have their anxiety levels raised when we apply or reduce power. The point being, we owe it to our passengers to provide an explanation before we execute maneuvers that might feel second nature to us. That goes for pre-flight briefings as well as shorter briefings throughout the flight.