I took my seven year old son for his first flight ever, last summer in a Classic Wings Rapide. You see, my first flight had been in an AEF Chipmunk some 22 years earlier, so I felt there was some mileage in establishing a family tradition of first flights being in a de Havilland product...
I digress...
The flight was 15 minutes long, which I felt was plenty long enough to see whether my son would enjoy flight, and as someone else was flying, it would be far safer than taking him up with me if he were to have a problem and want to get back down again.
I'm delighted to say, he loved it, and his flight in the Rapide was his only experience of aviation up until his maiden PA28 flight a month ago, and our family holiday to the Canary Islands last week. On arrival back at Gatwick, he also came out with the quote of the century. When asked whether he'd enjoyed the flight back, he turned and looked me squarely in the eye, and said: "It was alright Dad, but the Dragon Rapide was better."
That's my boy.