New Flyers and Where to Take Them

It seems that more and more these days I'm approached by friends, some of whom might have previously been reluctant to fly in a small plane, who want to go up in the air. I usually take them to Friday Harbor for lunch, which is a fairly short flight, but sometimes people don't want to go for the typical $100 hamburger (well, in Friday Harbor it's usually seafood, but we'll call it "hamburger" to keep with the tradition). So I take these folks somewhere else. But where? I thought I'd share some of the itineraries, including the Friday Harbor one, on the blog. Maybe some of my readers (uh, hopefully I've got some readers...) will comment and post the stories of where they took first-time flyers... Ok, here we go:

1. Friday Harbor lunch. This is a 49nm flight which I usually do VFR, although there has been one instance where Paine Field was at 800' broken, so I had to depart IFR (the weather forecast said it would clear up for the flight home, which it did). We usually end up departing around noon, and we're back at Paine Field at 5pm or so. The total flight time is around 1.5 hours, including ground taxi time. This flight can be either strictly a "lunch only" flight, or we can do some flying around the San Juans (show Orcas Island, circle to the West of San Juan Island to see Victoria, BC from a distance). On the way back, I've flown down Puget Sound to show the Seattle skyline from a bird's eye view. This usually excites folks, and it provides a good opportunity to take pictures.
2. Around the Olympic Peninsula. Strictly speaking I haven't done this flight with first-time flyers, but I've done it myself a couple of times. On a sunny day, you can see the Pacific Ocean beaches along the Washington shoreline, and in the wintertime, you can admire snow-covered peaks of the Olympic mountains. This can also be combined with a stop at Hoquiam and a visit to Lana's Hangar Cafe. Total flying time in a Cessna 182 is around 2.5 hours.
3. Mount Rainier Tour. This is probably best done in the late evening, such that we arrive at Mount Rainier almost at sunset. On the way there, I fly under Class B airspace until around Redmond, at which time I hopefully will get a Class B clearance at 7,500 or 9,500 feet. After hanging around Mount Rainier, we head up to Tacoma Narrows (avoiding the restricted areas south of KGRF/KTCM) and proceed to see Downtown Seattle, where we arrive right after dark, such that all the buildings are nicely lit up. Sometimes, when the controllers are nice, you can really show off Seattle from an airplane! One thing: this time of year, you have to watch out for fire-related TFR's, so it may be wise to use your GPS and program a route which will keep you well clear of them (the flight plan I do is KPAE-TAGOR-2W3-KTIW-KPAE). Total flying time is around 1.6 hours.

Where do you take first time flyers? Post a comment and share your experience!