Arriving at the airport, my mom took a look at the trusty 152 that had gotten me through thick and thin and said "we're going up in that?!". Ok, so it was an inauspicious start, but once we did the preflight together and answering every question along the way, she got past her tin can fears and legged up into the passenger seat. Once in the plane and taxing to the end of the runway, she was a picture of calm. Luckily, we had the perfect evening. Interestingly, the day had been rather rainly and stormy, but the current conditions were calm winds and forecasted to be that way though the night. After doing the run-up and checklists, I called our departure for 35 and we were off.
We took off to the north and I was able to find the Mill at McConnell's Mills which she got a kick out of. Then we flew over Lake Moraine and we reminisced about riding our bikes there when I was a kid. We then headed over to Beaver County Airport for fuel as our pump at Zeli was down. My mom was the first to spot the glider off to our right and up about a 500'. It was the first glider I had seen in the air and I give her kudos for even seeing it. Good thing she did however as he was headed to Beaver as well and when I talked to Beaver tower they advised me of the traffic and I was able to respond that the glider was in sight.
I followed the glider in on final, negotiated a decent 5-7kt x-wind landing, and taxied to the fuel pumps. After getting our fuel we headed back out and took off with a beautiful sunset behind us. By the way, whichever controller was on that night, he was a really nice and engaging guy. After a short flight back to Zeli, I planted a greaser and received a nice compliment from Mom. She had been a great first passenger and I wanted to show her how much I appreciated it!
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