Tragity

Not that I should need any sort of example, but one need only look to Jay
Honeck's travel with his family in his airplane. This sort of thing
happens all the time in the aviation world, just as families travel
together in automobiles all the time. It just doesn't make sense, from an
"enjoy life" point of view, to waste time trying to keep families apart.

Mary and I have debated this for over a decade, now -- and I believe there
is no better answer than this:

Life is a terminal condition. Live it for all its worth, now, cuz you could
be struck down with Lou Gehrig's disease at any time. (See Lane Wallace's
"Flying" column this month for a sobering report on what kind of a bad hand
life can deal you.)

We fly as a family, whenever and wherever we can, over 170 hours per year.
We fly in a single-engine plane, which gives us just one way of going up
(there are a hundred ways to come down), and it's 31 years old. We maintain
Atlas to the highest standards, but anything can happen at any time, and
we've trained extensively to handle those situations.

We don't fly at night, and we don't fly in bad weather. We always buy gas
from the same station, and always filter it before putting it in the plane.
We change the oil and filter every 25 hours. We never skate on a pre-flight
inspection, no matter how cold or hot. We usually have two pilots on board,
and the kids are trained to watch for traffic.

We fly from a lightly used, excellent general aviation airport. We have
three wide, long runways, low density altitude, little terrain to hit, and
an encyclopedic knowledge of the local and regional area. In our opinion,
we have reduced our risk of losing our children to an acceptable level.

But it's still our worst fear.

It's all about risk aversion, tempered with the sure knowledge that you
*will* die someday. Some people can't get out of bed in the morning
because of that pressure, while the rest of us push life to the limits.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"