To be a bit scared of DH's hobby?

When my son was 16-18 his slightly younger friend received a v old plane for his birthday. They both used to fly it all over Yorkshire - it is stressful, but now at 26 he still flies and intends to get the hours in at some point for his licence.

I don't think it's an unjustified concern, either, and I did a fair amount of training in light helicopters. Safety is about competence and appreciating your limitations. I gave up because I would not have been able to afford to fly often enough to stay safe. How is his attitude in general to risk taking and following regulations? That will tell you a lot about his risk profile in the air.

Fair enough - I guess my argument is that you're much more vulnerable alone in the air than you are on a road in a car. Even if the weather is great, what happens if the mechanics go wrong? You can't just stop and put your hazards on while you ring AA.

I'm not saying any of this to try and scare OP or anything, just as a response to those people saying you're more at risk in a car - I'm just not sure that's true when it comes to light aircraft.

I had PPL lessons until I found out it voided my life insurance. Struggled to get any affordable insurance with that as a hobby so had to give up 😭
Get him insured to the hilt then forget about it. I would feel exactly the same as you but don’t underestimate how much he loves flying.

My husbands cousin has a pilots licence and a plane. He's done so for about 15+ years i think and has been fine

@coffeesaveslives in the UK, bad weather rarely comes in "from nowhere". Small planes have limits on how many degrees of crosswind they can handle. Before you take off, you have to prepare for possible diversions. 2 weeks ago when it was really foggy, DH couldn't fly even when it cleared here because the closest divert was still in fog. On flight days, he checks the METARS from first thing so knows what is forecast in terms of cloud and wind.

True.

I guess my point is that in a car, you can always pull over if you feel it's unsafe and wait it out, as it were. In a plane, you have to keep going until there's somewhere safe and suitable for you to land.

I grew up in light aviation, 3 pilots I personally knew are dead and 1 has life altering injuries from a crash. But I know many more who have never had a crash.

I wasn't saying to scare you or anything - just to say that light aircraft are more vulnerable to the weather than cars in that respect.

DH flies with a club. They insist on him flying every 35 days, otherwise he has to have a check-ride with an instructor. He has to have a medical every 2 years and clock up at least (I think) 12 hours' pilot in command per year to keep his licence. Yet he could drive a car or motorbike having not driven/ridden for years as long as he held that type of licence.

I do love planes so it doesn't bother me unduly. DH is really careful and even though he doesn't have a lot of spare time, if he is in any doubt, he won't go.

When our DDs were young, we used to take a 4 seater to a local grass strip airfield, around 22 minutes from our local airport, which is a commercial one. The 4 seater was pretty much the biggest thing that landed at the grass strip - they had a cafe which did lovely cakes. The DDs loved going there for lemonade and cake - they sat in the back of the plane with their headsets on looking out of the window. I vividly remember DD2 at the age of 5 asking "can I have another Pringle please, over?". DH always did his checks from the printed checklists out loud. The kids misheard "Peter heater" for the pitot heater which was quite funny. I took them to Spain to see my sister not long after and as we walked up the steps of the E195, DD2 asked loudly "Mummy, which of those tubes is the pitot one?". I told her to ask the crew, who didn't know. When we landed, the Captain came out of the flight deck to ask why a small child was asking about pitot tubes. He was most impressed when we explained.

As others have said, make sure he is insured. These small aircraft do glide a long way, so if there is a problem, there is normally time to look for a suitable site to land. Remember Captain Sully glided the A320 into the Hudson with well over 100 people on board from only 3000 feet.

I just couldn't accept this OP. The risk is too high. My DH had a high risk hobby when we met and it was a deal breaker for me, especially as it would have been something our future DC would probably have wanted to do as well, had they grown up around it.

He chose me over the hobby when I expressed the depth of my anxiety. I know Mumsnet won't agree with my approach here but I'd already spent 2 weeks watching a loved one die in intensive care following a stupidly preventable accident and wasn't prepared to do it again. I know life happens and we can't protect our loved ones from everything but for me, high risk thrill seeking is an avoidable risk.

My DH gave up flying when we had our DD, I didn’t ask him to, he just felt it was prudent,
Took up golf instead.. swi gs and roundabouts!

Yes but most Cessna type aircraft aren't doing long distance flying, they often do loops of the local area you check the weather beforehand. Often you can get up above the clouds and the rubbish weather is below.

But once you're in the air, you can't do anything if a storm comes in or the wind picks up - it's not like a car when you can pull over it starts to snow, you have to keep going in a plane.

I'd be more worried if he were a motorcyclist or played rugby.

Flying is fun. Are you involved in the club at all? It sounds like you are worrying from an outsiders perspective, does the club not do family days? Quiz nights etc that you can go along to and get some more perspective.

I flew as a teen, Tutors with an RAF pilot, gliders with the senior cadets that had passed their licence so 18 year olds, friends light aircraft Cessna - admittedly does feel like being in an old Mini, even managed to wrangle a flight with a foreign aerobatic display team.

But planes are much more likely to be affected by poor visibility and bad weather.