When I moved up I was hell bent on flying anytime, anywhere, and with anyone with an airplane. I got in with a bunch of different people, in a bunch of different planes, and saw a lot of cool country. I wanted to learn to fly and have my own plane so bad I could taste it. No idea how I ever dreamed I could buy and maintain an airplane on my salary, but man I knew there had to be a way.
Then I lost three good friends, all pilots with thousands of hours, to plane crashes. All in under a year. It completely put my flying fire out, no desire to be in control of any kind of flying machine now.
I look back and can't believe some of the rides that I went on with inexperienced pilots in rented planes and some of the times I raced the weather with more experienced guys in their own planes. And you can bet that when I'm paying to be flown I research the flight service and never try to push the weather. If the pilot ain't comfortable, I damn sure ain't.
Sometimes if the pilot is comfortable I still ain't....
YOu only learn when to push, by many hours of flight. Manage your risks. And still IMHO, its always been more dangerous to drive to an airport than to fly. At least it sure is down here, and we still run more fatality wrecks here in tiny town USA, I deal with more dead bodies a year, than AK has fatal airplane crashes typically.
