Jose wrote:

There are a variety of reasons - one of them is that the pool of gals
who =do= like to fly is very small.

I met and married my wife long before I took my first lesson. But she
encouraged me through mine, and now I get to encourage her through hers.
So I didn't find a "gal that likes to fly"; I made one.

[I hope I do as well with my sons. The eldest's birth was early, causing me
to postpone my IR checkride. The youngest's birth was early, causing me to
postpone my long commercial XC. But perhaps that's just kids being kids,
and not reflective of their opinions regarding aviation laugh.]

Similarly, I know someone that met and married his wife before he took his
first lesson. She encouraged him through his, and then hated to fly with
him. At first, I thought it her issue. But then I experienced something
that caused me to refuse to fly with him.

I'm not saying that every person with a spouse that won't fly does things as
dangerously as that someone I know. But how careful are we to let our
spouses in, at their own speed, to this enterprise of ours?

I was speaking to a wife of a lapsed pilot recently. We were discussing the
idea of his picking up flying again. She seemed - at best - disinterested.
But after I described some of the (short by the standards of this group
{8^) trips on which I've taken my family (ie. Nantucket for lunch, which is
my favorite example for this purpose {8^), she became suddenly
enthusiastic.

With a little care, I suspect that utility carries a lot of weight. I know
that I still point out ugly road traffic over which we're flying to my
wife: "See what we're not in?".

- Andrew