Experience Question

"Fred Choate" wrote in message
...
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.

Comments?

Fred

Flew my first on the way back to the field after taking the check ride.

Actually, you can make a fairly good argument for a pilot being very sharp
right after passing the check ride. After all, you DID just demonstrate to
competent authority that you were both qualified and ready to accept this
responsibility. Do they REALLY think you'll become less competent 24 hours
later? :-)

There are stats that will show a definite area during your tenure as a pilot
based on hours and experience that will show a higher and lower accident
rate during these periods, but these are national averages. Your competence
was fine passing the test, and you should be just fine taking the kids for a
ride.
As for the "family" being concerned about your lack of "experience", I don't
think you want to get into the old counter argument to this that tells them
about the 20,000 hr ATP who flew his airliner into the ground and killed 300
people in the process! THAT will REALLY worry them!! :-)
I would approach the issue with a genuine concern for their "uneducated"
feelings about this, and calmly bring them up to speed with the reality that
you have finished what can easily be said to be a highly concentrated and
advanced training curriculum that has culminated in you taking an extremely
difficult and demanding flight test given by a test examiner. You have been
cleared as competent to fly safely with passengers, or you couldn't have
survived this gauntlet.
They should be very proud of you. You have earned the respect of your peers
in aviation, and if you walk them through a process that allows them to
realize this for themselves, this is EXACTLY what will happen for you.
Best of luck,
Dudley Henriques