My wife and 7 and 8 year old boys have about 500 hours in the back of
my Mooney everywhere from Mexico to AZ, to NM, to all places in CA.
They travel great in IMC or VMC, day and night. I've never had a
problem. The kids love breaking out of the clouds at minimums when we
go to the coast. Of course I also take recurrency training very
seriously and often fly with the local old time CFIs or local DE (
since I'm a CFI he'll sometimes even ride with me for free).

-Robert

Cub Driver wrote in message . ..
I find the aboe very intriguing. I understand that aviation has it own
enherited risks, but so does driving, biking, walking and so on. I also
realize, you have heard the song and dance that flying is safer then
driving, yada yada yada.

When I was taking flight lessons, I would assure my wife that the most
dangerous part was over when I parked the car at the airport. This of
course isn't true, as I now realize, and as I hope you also
appreciate.

The best analogy of the dangers of lightplane flying is to motorcycle
riding. It's not like going into combat, but it is much more dangerous
than driving the family Accord.

I might well choose to take up motorcycling someday, but I would never
put my granddaughter on the pylon behind me.

Let's just say that something tells me to make dang sure that if my
genes don't make it into the fourth generation, it won't be because I
took her to the grave with me. I won't fly my daughter because she's
needed to take care of my granddaughter. As for my wife, well, she's
useful as a babysitter.

Maybe if I'd had a bunch of kids, I'd feel differently.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com