Fred Choate wrote:
Hello All....

This may sound silly, but I would like to hear some opinions on a matter
presented to me this evening.

I recently got my ticket. I started 5 years ago, and due to certain
circumstances, I had to take 4 1/2 years off, then I picked up and did 10
more hours of training to prep for the checkride. My total hours to date
are 63.8 with 26.7 of those being solo time.

Okay, that being said, my In-Laws made a comment to me tonight about flying
with my children. Actually, they put it in the context of "do you really
think it is a good idea to fly with your children until you get more
hours....." followed by "....Larry (one of the In-Laws) didn't fly with
family members until he had 300 hours....".

I didn't even respond. My question to you folks is simply, how long did you
all wait before you decided it was safe to fly with your family?
Myself.....my kids were the first passengers I took up, and I felt
completely safe, prepared, and at ease with them in the aircraft with me.

I took friends and family up right away, within probably a week or so,
I'd have to check my log to say for sure as that was 27 years ago. My
instructor, who was also the DE who gave me the flight ride, said that
his basic test wasn't the PTS, but was the grandchildren test. If he
didn't trust a candidate to take up his grandkids on the next flight
after the flight ride, then they didn't pass.

I figured afterwards that if he felt I was safe with his grandkids, then
I was safe with my own family. :-)

Matt