"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:BSuUd.70922$tl3.52178@attbi_s02...
[...]
After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I just laughed -- but this brings
up a serious point that I've never seen addressed here. For those of you
who own aircraft, and have kids that have learned to fly, how did you
handle "borrowing the plane"? I mean, it's not quite the same as letting
him take the pickup down to the corner grocery...

Do you guys let your kids fly your plane?

Not even close to being an issue. I've got a few years yet. However...

Know your child. By the time your child is old enough to fly an airplane
with passengers, you ought to know him well enough to know whether he has
the maturity to resist doing anything dumb. You cannot ever be completely
sure, of course, but IMHO being 100% sure isn't what raising a child is
about.

I don't know anyone who doesn't have at least one serious error in judgment
during their lifetime to report, but fortunately most of us lived through
our errors, and assuming your child can keep those errors to a minimum, it's
likely he will too. Of course, so much the better if you can emphasize
enough that errors in judgment while flying an airplane are much more likely
to result in death.

I believe that a child who is permitted to take flying lessons, and who has
been approved by the FAA to fly without an instructor, should be permitted
to do so. Otherwise, why allow the flying lessons in the first place? Once
that child has been permitted to carry passengers, again...they should be
allowed to by the parent. While there are certainly some activities for
which I think it's appropriate to provide *some* degree of training but not
to allow, I don't think flying falls into that category.

With respect to carrying passengers, I do think it's reasonable for a parent
to impose "supervised flight" requirements above and beyond what the FAA
requires before carrying passengers. Once a child is deemed qualified to
carry passengers, I think it would be wise to consider a recent study that
shows that children are MUCH more likely to engage in unsafe and reckless
driving practices with their friends in the car. The more of their friends,
the higher the risk (ironic, since that of course means that more people can
be hurt at once).

So, it might make sense to permit a teenager to carry only one passenger at
a time. Fine for dates, doesn't work very well for "partying" with multiple
friends in remote locations. Reducing the potential number of passengers to
one will go a long way to reducing the overall risk. Interestingly, the
Sport Pilot certificate now provides an FAA-approved way to codify this
policy, and as a bonus will allow a child to become a full-fledged pilot at
reduced expense.

Finally, of course, I think that any friends taken along flying should only
be permitted to go along if their parents have been consulted and approve.

Of course, some teenagers shouldn't ever be permitted alone in an airplane,
while others have been ready for that responsibility long before they are
old enough to qualify for the pilot certificate. All the above starts with
knowing the difference.

Pete