In article
,
Ricky wrote:

Here's possibly a stretch of a question...

My daughter is only 7 but already I'm thinking of her driving and,
hopefully, learning to fly (like me). I'd love to teach her myself if
she shows interest.

I've heard many times that a pilot makes a safer driver and, looking
at myself & some other pilots I know, I believe that may be true. I've
never seen statistics but would be interested in knowing if this is
fact statistically.

Anyway, I expect to be a CFII & further soon (com./inst. now) and was
wondering if anyone has ever taught a sibling (or anyone for that
matter) to fly before they learned to drive?
Do you think it would make for a safer driver?

I took flying lessons well before I started to drive. I wouldn't say I
"learned to fly" at that point, as I didn't get my rating until much
later and I didn't really have the proper judgement or mental attitude
for it at the time. It's hard to say if it helped me with my driving.

A decade later when I started in on it again, I think it helped my
driving a fair bit even though I was 25 when I came back to it. The
ideas of being "ahead of the airplane" (or car, as the case may be), of
planning ahead, of doing things the "right way" as far as you are able
but doing whatever it takes to survive if something goes wrong, all of
this became much more apparent to me during flight training. I think
this has made me much safer, but of course 80% of drivers believe they
are above average. If a young person is mentally mature enough to absorb
these ideas then I could see it being a big help.

My little brother will be 16 this summer and is learning to drive. When
he came to visit last summer we got him a few lessons with my club. We
found an operation near my parents' place (I fly gliders so he wants to
fly gliders, and that's tougher to find) and paid it a visit last fall,
and supposedly he's been anxious to get back out there. He's asked me a
lot of good questions about flying and driving, like responding to
emergencies, the learning process, exercising judgement, and even just
the mechanics of the stuff. It seems to me that being in command (even
with the instructor) of a more unusual craft has given him an extra
interest in the whole idea and it is my completely inexpert opinion that
this will probably translate into being a safer and more knowledgeable
driver than would otherwise be the case.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon