"Just think, Dad, in two years I'll be able to take a date out in the
plane!"

Breathe easy Jay, he'll have to be 17 before he can take his date in Atlas,
so that will give you a little more time to worry. He and his date will
have to practice in the glider for a year. Unless of course, his date is
his instructor!

Seriously, I'd worry more about the instructor that you and your family
choose for your son. I'd look for a well seasoned type that has sucseffuly
taught plenty of young impressionable zero time teenagers. Experiance with
teaching specifically young people to fly will be invaluable. Mood swings,
lack of motivation, clouded thinking, zoneing out, forgetting appointments
are all things that every instructor has to deal with, but with teenagers
they all happen much more frequently. A patient, caring, and understanding
instructor will be a must!

If you can find one that also is an A&P that can put your son to work around
the shop to help earn his flying time, all the better. The more experiance
around airplanes, not just Atlas, the better. He'd get a very good
understanding about why you don't do this or do that while flying from
seeing the insides of some of the local planes.

The seriousness of the potential consiquences of inapproriate actions must
be instilled deeply into a young pilots mind. I know one father CFI that
was teaching his son to fly. He was very serious about never getting the
airplane in any unsafe condition. One day after his son skidded around the
corner of death while turning base to final and behind the power curve, the
father announced "Great, you just killed us." On the ground he explained
the problem, what and why it happened, then told his son to type up a
funeral announcement for both of them and to show it to his mother. When
his mother asked why they were dead, his father made the son explain it to
the mother. Sometimes getting through the thick know it all skull of a
teenager requires drastic or dramatic methods. Find an instructor that will
do what ever it takes to make your son a safe pilot. Once he get's his
ticket, demand frequent recurrent training. Someday he'll be in the left
seat, his girl in the right, and mom and dad in the back.

Jim