Looks like I'm in the minority here, but I think some self-imposed limits
are
in order. Yes, I would take family or friends up immediately after getting
the
ticket, IF it's a short ride, in good weather near your home field. If
you're
talking about going places though, I would be concerned about an
inexperienced
pilot placing unneeded performance pressure on himself. If you offer to
fly
your family to the inlaws' house, 200nm away, and they accept - then by
the
time they get belted in they have their minds set on getting there. This
is
the time when the less experienced pilot could make judgement errors,
particularly regarding weather. Lack of experience + external pressure . .
.

Depends on the training. My instructor firmly planted the seeds of caution
on all cross-country flights, and I use his teaching to this day.

Maybe we were crazy, but Mary and I launched on a multi-state cross-country
flight just a few months after I got my ticket. In fact, I just found the
flight plan the other day, stashed in a forgotten file, and we both had a
great laugh when we found that I had written down EVERY SINGLE VISIBLE
LANDMARK, in a single-spaced, typed-out format, on a trip of a thousand
miles!

We're talking entries like "Power lines at a 45-degree angle" and
"smokestack on the right", for page after page! Shoot, I put more planning
into that trip than NASA put into the moon landings -- so perhaps we do it
*better* when we're newbies, eh?

At the other end of the spectrum, I know pilots with many years of
experience who *never* leave the airport environment, and seem perfectly
content with that. To them, simply going "up" is the thrill, I guess.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"