Yep, he and his wife were big divers and switched to planes when their kids were born.
Then, their kids learnt to dive and they started doing diving trips with their plane (with all their gear etc…) to the Bahamas and the Caymans :)
Jujupilote wrote:
The guy I mentioned describes flying as super family-friendly compared to scuba diving, and other hobbies.
I wouldn’t agree with comparison to scuba diving because it can also be family-friendly hobby. My wife and both my kids (now grown) used to dive (and they still sometimes do) with me. The kids started at age of 8 and we had a lot of fun diving in Adriatic, Red Sea and Yucatan.
Regarding family flying, my wife is still regular and the kids don’t object when they’re around and if destination is scenic 
LFHNflightstudent wrote:
I guess the trick is to take the family to nice places, stay in nice locations and spend the rest of your weekend doing things the family actually like
It also makes you like the utility of flying (one get bored by “burger runs”) but you still have to seriously invest in your solo currency
On has to do load of circuits, stalls, glides, steep turns, bad weather….mostly locally when alone
Jujupilote wrote:
The guy I mentioned describes flying as super family-friendly compared to scuba diving, and other hobbies.
I agree with him, I used to paddle kayaks (professionally), sleeping rough on the side of some river waking up with wet gear frozen stiff in the morning then hucking yourself of as many waterfalls possible for a day while you’re partner wonders if you’re going to get killed that day… The romance of that wears of pretty quickly. My wife (of 23 years) is quite happy flying with me, I guess the trick is to take the family to nice places, stay in nice locations and spend the rest of your weekend doing things the family actually like. As for Sjoerd-Jan my wife mostly falls asleep after having been in the air for a while. (usually somewhere over the Med with not much to see) Compared to extreme kayaking, flying, even single engine, is quite safe…
Yes, I took the Brevet de Base before taking the PPL. I never know how to describe this to non-french.
Thanks Gallois.
The guy I mentioned describes flying as super family-friendly compared to scuba diving, and other hobbies.
@Jujupilote, you are of course writing of the Brevet Base not a basic licence.The base is the terrain not basic.In April this will become the LAPL (A), the conversion procedure can be found on the DGAC site along with how to add further ratings.
@Skydriller has asked for a link on another thread and I will post it as soon as I can find one.
UL useful load
200 hours in about 2 years.
As always, it depends. 200 hours in how many years ?
After the French basic license, you had to fly solo for 16 hours (within a 30km circle from your base) before taking a passenger. It makes you eager to take one as soon as you can
What do tou mean by « had more UL » ?
As to the OP’s question: I would, but not for a family of 6 (family of 4 for a 6 seater). I fly my wife and son around Europe in the Rallye and wish I had more UL. I am quite careful with weather and maintenance though.
But it takes a while to build up the required experience. Perhaps I was over conservative, but I waited until I had 200 hour TT before I took my first non-pilot passenger. People starting out are often unrealistic about how long a path it is.
I like to pre-position the plane in our vacation area (flying solo to get there), fly in commercial with everyone, then use the plane for trips (2.5 hours or under) to get around. We are mobile and flexible. Both wife and son like it. My wife does not like turbulence.
My plane is from an EASA country. I will go to N-Reg if I change planes.
From my new guru , a repeat RV builder and family man (his blog here):
As it turns out, Flying is really the ultimate hobby to have while you have small children. Many young people tend to shy away from that sort of thing, whether it be from some perceived risk or more commonly, the expense. One concept though that we’ve always lived by is that if you don’t do it while you’re young, you’ll regret it later, and we wanted to share as much as we could with the kids while they were young. We partnered in an airplane with my Dad soon after learning to fly, and then poured ourselves into that. When the kids were both born, both of them were flying in airplanes within 5 weeks of birth. When they could barely walk, they’d stand up and look out the windows as we flew across the country. Flying is what made it possible for us to travel using a hobby we enjoyed, and involve the kids in what we were doing. The awesome family suitability of the hobby is what kept us so involved, and brought me to building an RV-10, and it’s been the most fun I’ve had in my life.
What a striking POV from this side of the pond 
