Flying your family around Europe is perfectly doable, and many do it. It does take the right Significant Other, and some dedication: as soon as I passed my PPL I started working towards 6-seaters and the IR. All in all, it took 4 years to get to the 98% dispatch rate you need to do this properly.
My family MUCH prefers flying short haul with me than with Easyjet or Ryanair. I work hard to keep it that way: I spend my “discretionary” (ex maintenance) money on what matters to my wife (new paint, interior refurb, landing at nice airports) rather than to me (G500s would have been nice :-)). I break up flights that the plane and I can do in one go because that’s how they like it. And I have a very different appetite for spending time in cloud or turbulence if they’re on board.
I also noticed that their experience is heavily impacted by the last 15 min of the flight: taking off and climbing in turbulence is much better than a rough approach and landing. This affects my go/no-go and timing decisions. I have since learned that this is supported by research done with dental surgery patients :-)
Denopa, does your wife have an unknown sister? She sounds exactly like my wife, and in fact, that is exactly how I do my trips. Not too long for the kids, 2-2.5 hour max, own in flight catering, Marks and Sparks sandwiches, on departure and arrival, through the business aviation lounges, and consideration, wherever possible, about the time in cloud-read turbulence. Now, if all that comes together everyone happy. Like you, I try hard to make it like that…..
Completely concur on flying with the family. Turbulence affects them more than me by an order of magnitude (well my wife and daughter – son doesn’t care). Breaking up the flight helps a lot. I try to plan for a lunch/fuel stop. Always fly as high as I can to minimise bumps.
Biggest problem is keeping the temperature in line with their expectations. Always too hot or cold.
It is easy to come up with problem preventing you from doing it. You need a supportive family but then do it. But don’t treat it as an aviation experience, treat it as a holiday where you are doing the transport. That helps with making a number of the decisions.
does your wife have an unknown sister?
Then you’re a lucky man, as I count myself lucky :-)
I’m with Denopa, generally. For me, though, it’s always had to be more of an event than strictly a form of transport, because the dispatch rate is so low. This is even worse if I have to make the go-no go call a few days earlier to allow the family to make other plans. I have tended to limit us to day trips or just a few days to see friends or special occasions like Badminton cross country where passengers feel quite special (by avoiding the queues). I tend to stick to places we can get back from without the plane (eg mainly UK, Channel Islands, or other airports with a scheduled service). The two biggest problems for me are that: arranging a rental plane needs to be done well before any idea of the weather, so we end up doing what we can rather than what is planned…not really a form of transport; and booking hotels which I can’t use will wear thin very quickly.
I like the idea of taking a six seater around Europe as a form of transport, but I suspect this would be a path of escalation to a pressurised, multi-engine at which point we could probably only afford to get half way there! So for me it’ll stay a hobby and if I can share it with my family so much the better.
One thing which often screws up “family” flying is a gradual buildup of anxiety on somebody’s part.
Eventually the person refuses to do more than trivial trips.
I am in that situation now, though I has taken 10 years and they were pretty good 
Of course the same person will travel on an airline… regardless of how rough that flight is going to be.
One thing which often screws up “family” flying is a gradual buildup of anxiety on somebody’s part.
Peter, you have mentioned this before. I have never really heard of it. Is it seen as a general problem or one more related to your sample size of one?
My interrogation was more regarding turbo or non-turbo wrt to weather at altitude or alps crossing
People seem to manage OK with non-turbo provided the engine is big enough. The 250HP+ machines get to ~FL200 (ISA conditions) which is easily good enough for the Alps or anywhere else in Europe. A TB20 takes about 45 minutes to get there (maybe 30 mins to FL160) whereas a TB21 will have a FL250 ceiling and will achieve FL200 in about 25 mins or FL160 in about 20 mins. In the context of say a 4hr flight, there is no real difference.
So it comes down to other factors like spending less time in icing conditions, but really if you are going to be doing a lot of that, you may as well go for the full TKS.
But spending a lot more time in IMC is going to reduce the % of happy passengers Most non-pilots dislike IMC, especially in turbulence.
Most non-pilots dislike IMC, especially in turbulence.
Pilots, too!
Of course, but it’s a bit like being on the back of a motorbike. The driver loves it but the passenger might be less keen to be thrown around.
