Peter Dohm wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
Wizard of Draws wrote:
I did have to caution my Co-pilot at one point during our return flight
however, when he kept pressing the push-to-talk button without my
knowledge,
causing me much confusion and sending me looking for the loose headset
connection.

While I understand your joy and that of the other posters who have had
children get involved in aviation, I wonder whether there is a safety
issue in having such a small child with access to the PTT switch and
other controls. If the radio confusion had happened during a time of
pilot overload, it could have had serious consequences. Maybe I'm
missing something, but I was surprised that no one else mentioned this
possibility.

Children ad jueveniles are not infants.

The only serious problems that I have ever heard reported involving children
at the controls involved some attempt to set a record for the youngest to
complete a flight or tour as sole manipulator of the controls. The most
infamous (and possibly only) case led to dissaster, IIRC, because of a
terminal case of "get there itis" on the parts of the father who had become
fixated on the media attention which they had received up to that point, and
the failure of the flight instructor to "just say no".

Peter

There was also the 23 March 1994, Aeroflot Airbus 310 crash in Siberia
after the pilot allowed his 15-year-old son to take the controls.

But generally I agree. I can overpower anything a 2 year old does in
the cockpit. A friend of mine was instructing at the Air Force Academy
a few years ago. She was 22, 5'7, 120 lbs. Her student, on his first
flight, played linebacker. He froze with the yolk full aft. She
finally bashed him across the face with her maglight to get him to let
go. (He washed out)