Passengers manipulating controls

On Thursday, April 10, 2014 9:04:59 AM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
Not GA, but I recall an Air Force accident report where shards of the stick

grip in the palm of the back seat passenger's hand indicated that he was on

the stick at impact. I think it was an academy cadet in a T-33 and the

instructor in the front had a heart attack.





wrote in message

...

If the insurance company can't link passengers touching of controls, in

general, to accidents why forbid it? I wonder how many GA accidents have

been linked to a non-pilot passenger handling the controls. There are

probably some but I'd guess that they would involve panicked passengers. If

its such a big deal why not require that there be no controls accessible to

the passenger? I could understand no touching during critical phases of

flight (approach, landing take-off, below x altitude, etc) but to completely

forbid it is overkill.



I just fail to see the logic of "Well, before you stall/spun on final you

let the passenger make a few turns an hour prior. Therefore, your policy is

cancelled" or worse, deny coverage on that particular accident.



I know 'don't ask, don't tell' is the simplest way around it but I'd hate to

say to someone "I'll let you try but you can't tell anybody when we get back

on the ground".

I always found this one interesting.
http://www.show-the-house.com/id36.html

Frank Whiteley