On my first flight as a copilot (acting as pilot flying) with passengers, which was in 1971, the actor Gert Fröbe ( “Goldfinger” & “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes” ) was sitting in the first row l/h aisle. Cockpit door was always open in those days. B737 from Hamburg to Frankfurt, captain was a friendly Dutch guy. My landing was o.k. – not a greaser but neither a carrier landing. Nobody told Fröbe that he had just survived a “first” landing.
Those ‘recommendations’ sound like a good way of getting the hire revenue up!
I’d file them along with ‘cross channel checkouts’ and other such stuff.
First conversion lesson? How many are you expecting to do? And from what are you converting?
my two pennies…
1.) ensure passenger seat is secured. really secured. check with him he can handle it, it is same as in car after all.
Happen years ago in our club. passenger seat wasn’t secured, slided back during take off, unexpected event for fist time passenger.
Instinct says “need to hold anything” = yokes looks to be only thing I can grab in this plane = takeoff stall
fortunatelly it was 152 so no big speed or alt, minor injuries, plane destroyed.
2.) do a morning flight, before 10AM or so. Don’t know what is valid for your part of the world and also this is not so important during winter but in my case
My home airport sits in MCTR (military aiprort just across the the street) and “under” TMA of our ‘big’ airport
no matter which way I am flying first cca 15nm are something like 800-900 AGL. I can feel every molehill, every piece of tarmac, literally everything when ground is heated up.
This is definitelly not comfortable for my passengers and there is nothing I can do with it (and trying to be faster with 152 is just be more noisy :)
My suggestions:
1.
We as light GA pilots are used in sometimes doing abrupt roll and pitch changes which to us make no impression as something beyond the ordinary.
Well, to the friend who will join a ride for a first time in a 152 abrupt moves are an issue some times.
Keep that in mind and be smooth !
2.
I remember from my “young” post PPL days when I was taking friends for a ride that I was over talkative (from the adrenalin) and also one of the things I was proudly doing was a complete tour of the (152/172) cockpit as a presentation to the passenger as if that was the most important thing in the world.
Looking back later some of the converted VHS Hi8 videos of me shot by friends en route back then I could not believe how ridiculous I looked and how damn unimportant in regards to the marvel of flying my talking was !!!
Taking a step backwards and looking to my self I then thought “shut the f.. up and let the guy enjoy the FLIGHT and point them outside without all this talking !”
So another tip: keep it calm in the blah blah and let them enjoy the view outside; the 152 and all the aircraft we (most) flew in the 80’s or 90’s has absolutely nothing interesting inside for a non pilot !
Last but not least the 152 is not a wide cabin. To the first time flying passenger it may make them a bit nervous. With that in mind I mentioned the 2 above.
Calm flying and looking outside, that helps forgetting the cabin 
Thanks again guys for the tips. I took my friend yesterday for a one hour local flight, in the 152. Went around the luton CTR, clockwise from Denham and back. We both enjoyed it. The vis wasn’t that great, but at least it was very smooth. Some memorable moments:
While taxying
‘Why are the foot rests moving?’
…
‘How old is the aircraft?’
’It’s probably older than me… I think it was built late 70s’
‘I believe you’
…
After showing her the VOR needle with long explanation on how it works and that it will now slowly move to the center meaning we’re getting on track.
‘ok’
(petakas I should have read your reply earlier!)
…
‘Oh look a cloud, are we going through it?’
’I’m not allowed’
‘Why the hell not?’
…
On the radio, not me
‘Denham radio, G-XXXX can you confirm if the landing gear is down, I don’t have green lights’
Look of horror on her face
‘He will be ok, don’t worry, it’s probably only the indicator light bulb’
‘G-XXXX, your gear looks down’ (he later landed safely)
‘Where is the indicator for our landing gear?’
…
After landing
‘How many passengers have you taken before me?’
’You’re the first’
Sounds good! I took my Mom as my first passenger. When she drives with me, she usually grabs the handle above the door as soon as we move – out of sheer horror of driving with me. She thinks I’m an irresponsible and reckless driver and nothing and no-one can convince her otherwise.
Consequently, in the C152, she was looking for that handle above the door and when she couldn’t find it, she held on to the door handle itself for the first 10-15 minutes, after which she relaxed substantially. I think she is now much calmer flying with me than driving with me. That’s probably because she cannot relate to what’s happening, like she can in a car (she drives really slowly…).
While taxying
‘Why are the foot rests moving?’
Any plans next time to include that in your passenger briefing before taxying? 
Very funny. You can Google loads of aviation jokes and nothing beats the funny comments like the ones you get above. Glad it went well and you both enjoyed it.
One of the funniest ones is when people ask “how many feet are there in a mile?”
Maybe less funny if you are taking up a couple and they “prefer” to sit in the back
