Flying with the kids

Well Casey, I'm still a student, so I can't take anyone -- least of all my
3-year-old -- flying just yet. But my club has a PC-based simulator set up,
which he loves. I was flying an approach on the sim one day, and I guess he
wanted dad to let him "fly" for a change. Suddenly, about 1000 feet prior
to crossing the threshold, my simulated engine quit. It didn't take much
troubleshooting to figure out why. My cute little boy was standing there
with his hand on the sim's mixture control, and he had quite a grin on his
face.

I don't know how he knew which knob to pull on. I don't even know if he was
aware of what he was doing. But I do know that after this incident, it is
going to be several years before he makes it into the front seat of any
airplane I'm flying. Until I'm dead-on certain that he won't touch
anything, he's sitting in the back!

By the way, I do recall reading an ASRS report written by a guy who put his
2-year-old in the right seat, and ended up having to fight him for control
of the yoke.