Poll: how long before carrying passengers?

My checkride was over at 11pm so no time that day. I took my mom up soon after though for a ride down the beach. It was short though, weather was moving in.
 
My first post checkride flight was taking my wife on a cross country from Minneapolis to Cedar Rapids IA in a 152. The flight went just fine except that I left the master switch on in the airplane and had to hand prop it when it was time to leave.
 
jesse said:
I don't expect you to be the average pilot.

Believe me, the average pilot is not spending their time reading about aviation on forums. They never think about it, get in their plane once or twice a year, and have been flying like that for the last 20 years doing the absolute minimum to barely keep things legal. You don't really know what's out there until you start riding with them. I've flown with aircraft owners that have flown less than 30 hours in the last 10 years TOTAL that they've owned their airplane.

It's incredibly rare that I do a flight review or IPC with a pilot that ends up performing like the people I've flown with on this site do.
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I'll second that "you don't know what is out there until you start riding with them". The only times I've been truly scared as a CFI have been with already certificated pilots in the left seat seeking flight reviews, IPC's, and aircraft checkouts. Seriously, most primary instruction isn't all that bad compared to some of these guys (most CFI's joke about student's trying to kill them, but truth be told, primary student errors are much more...predictable than some of the situations I've had certificated pilots put me in). In fact, my scariest hour of dual given to date was an attempted checkout in a simple C150. My second scariest was also with a certificated pilot in the left seat; however, much of the blame lies in CFI's who don't care/don't emphasize true proficiency. In the case of the 150 checkout guy, he had just received a "flight review" 2 months prior to our flight together. I wanted to find that CFI and kick him in the nuts for doing the aviation community such a disservice by turning this guy loose for 2 more years. It's kinda sad that I frequently find myself pleasantly surprised when a checkout or flight review go's very well and the pilot leaves me with a very positive impression at the end of it and not just the minimum safety standard I hold people to (which is just as it sounds. Show me you're a safe pilot and you'll get whatever endorsement/checkout you came to me for. If I held everyone to Professional Pilot standards (for instance, the standards I hold myself to), I would very rarely be able to sign off a flight review without significant remedial/recurrent training and the school I work with wouldn't have many renters). Funny thing is, one of the better flight reviews I've given was for someone who happens to be a member here.
 
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On topic...I think I took my first passenger up a month and a half after getting my private.
 
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