How safe is a new teenaged pilot?

I'd be more worried about one with 200 to 300 hours who's starting
to get over confident and push the envelope.


"anon" wrote in message
news
Our 17 year old son want to fly as a passenger with his 17 year old friend
who
is a brand new pilot. We think the boy is level-headed and mature. He
grew up
flying with his dad who is a retired test pilot for an aircraft
manufacturer.

These credentials not withstanding, I'm guessing that there is increased
risk
of accidents with new pilots. We are uncomfortable about letting him fly
with
his friend, but we want to be reasonable.

I would appreciate any data or guidance this group could provide.

Thanks

Peter

OtisWinslow wrote:
I'd be more worried about one with 200 to 300 hours who's starting
to get over confident and push the envelope.


I spent a lot of time studying statistics in college and very few of
the more provocative analyses out there really leave much of an
impression. The data is simply not rich enough (that I've seen) to
support high confidence assertions that there is a "killing zone" at
this point. So we're stuck using common sense: inexperience kills
novice pilots, overconfidence and sloppiness kills experienced ones. On
the highway you are at the mercy of every dingbat around; in the air
it's all you. Statistics say that flying is more dangerous as a general
rule but I can understand why many pilots say they feel safer in the
air: depending on their habits they very likely are much of the time.

-cwk.

"anon" wrote in message

Our 17 year old son want to fly as a passenger with his 17 year old friend
who
is a brand new pilot. We think the boy is level-headed and mature. He
grew up
flying with his dad who is a retired test pilot for an aircraft
manufacturer.

Well, there's a simple opportunity...uh, solution...he Make him take you
flying first!

;
-c

"anon" wrote in message These credentials not withstanding, I'm guessing
that there is increased risk
of accidents with new pilots. We are uncomfortable about letting him fly
with
his friend, but we want to be reasonable.
I would appreciate any data or guidance this group could provide.

Every person is different. I soloed at 16 along with a couple of high school
buddies of mine. We destroyed numerous cars and motorcycles, and maybe a
boat or two, but we never so much as scratched an airplane. The culture
ingrained into us by the older fellows at the airport instilled a sense of
pride in flying.

D.

Our 17 year old son want to fly as a passenger with his 17 year old friend
who
is a brand new pilot. We think the boy is level-headed and mature. He
grew up
flying with his dad who is a retired test pilot for an aircraft
manufacturer.

These credentials not withstanding, I'm guessing that there is increased
risk
of accidents with new pilots. We are uncomfortable about letting him fly
with
his friend, but we want to be reasonable.

I would appreciate any data or guidance this group could provide.

Thanks

Peter

I would approach it like I would other activities when teenagers want to go
out and do stuff. Set some conditions to reduce the risk, then expand the
boundaries as your trust and their maturity increasese. Let your son when
his friend has 100 hours in his logbook, conditions are 5,000 and 5 or
better, daytime, and they stay within 25 miles for example.

I'm not a pilot, not even a student pilot, and though I've read this
newsgroup for years, I've never before posted.

When I was 16 or so, I had some flight instruction (just 5.5 hours, it
hardly counts!), as did many friends in my age group- in fact, we had
our own club and plane, not bad for a bunch of kids I suppose.

While many teenagers have a tendency to "show off" and do bold (read:
dumb) things occasionally, the mindset we had wasn't like that. If
anything, "showing off" was done not by breaking procedure, but the
opposite. It seemingly showed "gutsiness and bravado" to stick
meticulously to every rule and safe practice no matter what we "wanted"
to do.

I never even solo'd, but the experience still was a huge part of
growing up, and it strongly affected my driving. When I started
driving, I'd already done a bit of flying, and so the "safety first"
thinking was all part of it.

I don't know if I've contributed a thing to the discussion, so while
I'm here, I'd like to shout out a "thanks" to the regulars here; you
all make this a most enjoyable place for reading about the one love I
won't likely ever return to (financial reasons, mainly).