Hints for parents of 13 year old student pilot?

Jay, don't over-analyze. Go ahead, but let the kid know he can bail
(and come back) without a big scene. Some days it will seem like a
good idea; some days it won't.

Don

On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 20:11:17 +0100, Martin Hotze
wrote:


who wants the boy to become a pilot? you, Mary or he himself?

#m

Martin, you hit the nail on the head. I soloed on my 16th birthday
and my parents never paid for any of my flying lessons. I earned it.
I wanted it.

In the past year I've given a couple of youngsters their dual for the
Private. On the written test, they scored 74 and 76. One of them
failed the flight check the first time out. It wasn't my fault.
Dang, the written test questions and answers are published, and the
one that flunked the practical was on the last manueuver (short field
takeoff) and didn't notice that although he put the flap selector in
the full up position, they remained full down. And the examiner let
him attempt to do it! Right. Neither of these young men want to fly
as much as their Daddy and Mom do.

Mike Weller

Having seen this a bit, my best advice would be ...

.... Wait.

If they're keen to learn then "test" their keenness by getting them stuck
into the written exams.

My belief if that the maturity to make life/death aviation decisions comes
with years AND experience - and in my (very humble) opinion someone who is
13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 even needs to mature more before commanding any
aeroplane.

It might sound a little harsh, but it's one thing to solo an aeroplane
around the circuit - it's another when you're up there, wishing you were
down there - lonely - scared - bad case of get-home-itis - deteriorating
weather - perhaps an engine problem etc. In those kinds of situations your
son/daughter is going to either grow up awefully fast, or ... (let's not
even think about it)

Hope this helps!

CC

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
Despite our aviation background, my wife and I are both on pins and
needles
about this -- we want to make sure he gets off on the right foot. Any
advice from others who have gone down this road is appreciated!

No advice here except to say that I sure hope your youngun' can grok what a
lucky little ******* he is. I sure wish I would have had such a chance at
that age. My gosh what a profound impact learning aviation would have had
had I been exposed to it earlier!

Good luck to your and yours.

--
Jim Fisher

No advice here except to say that I sure hope your youngun' can grok what
a
lucky little ******* he is. I sure wish I would have had such a chance at
that age. My gosh what a profound impact learning aviation would have had
had I been exposed to it earlier!

Same here. I can't even fathom what an opportunity like this would have
meant to me at age 13. I spent my entire life, until age 35, on the ground
looking up, wondering how (or if) I could ever get up there...

I talked with a young instructor-friend today, and asked him what he thought
of teaching a 13-year old to fly. To my surprise, he told me that HE
started taking lessons when he was 13!

He also joined Civil Air Patrol, and did a number of other things, including
spending a couple of weeks at OSH every year. He's now a CFI-I, and
working himself up the ladder.

I think I might send my kid up with him, just to see how it goes. He'll
try to feel him out, to see if the motivation is really there yet.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On 3/22/04 8:32 PM, in article ,
"Jim Fisher" wrote:

No advice here except to say that I sure hope your youngun' can grok what a
lucky little ******* he is. I sure wish I would have had such a chance at
that age. My gosh what a profound impact learning aviation would have had
had I been exposed to it earlier!

Good luck to your and yours.

--
Jim Fisher


I'll second that.
What I've gained by learning to fly at my advanced age, very likely would
have changed my life profoundly in direction and scope if it had been
learned as a child.
--
Jeff 'The Wizard of Draws' Bucchino
Cartoons with a Touch of Magic�
www.wizardofdraws.com
www.cartoonclipart.com

Jay Honeck wrote:

My son, age 13, is planning to take flight lessons this summer.

My only advice is to go for it. Ok, so he *can't* solo for a few years. If you
wait until he can, there's a good chance that he'll be more interested in abusing
your ears with his idea of how to play a guitar or mooning over some girl. Let
him do what he can, and, if he loses interest, he'll have more to come back to
later than a vague memory of how Papa took him flying as a kid.

George Patterson
Battle, n; A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that would
not yield to the tongue.

On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 14:16:08 +0000, Jay Honeck wrote:

My son, age 13, is planning to take flight lessons this summer. My wife and
I are both pilots, so he has been flying since birth.

Any parents out there gone through the same experience? My concerns a

1. Training Program. His training need to be thorough, but not dull and too
"book oriented." I don't want him to burn out.

2. Structure. He's a typical 13 year old -- one minute mature, the next
minute a scatter-brain. He learns best in a structured environment, which
is something I've noticed is lacking in most FBO-based training programs.
The problem, of course, is if it's too structured it may become dull, and
then we're back to #1.

3. Frequency. Given his inability to solo for a few years, I was thinking
that weekly lessons would be plenty. I know this slows the learning
process, but that's okay for now. Or do you think he'll lose interest at
that slow of a pace?

4. Instructor. Whoever teaches him is going to have to relate to a young
teenager. Considering the young age of most of our CFIs, this may not be a
problem. Or, they may not take him seriously. Or, worse, he might not take
*them* seriously.

It's really hard for me to tell if his interest is genuinely internal, or if
it's just coming from the fact that his mother and I are pilots. We've
assumed from birth that he and his sister would one day fly, just like we
assume that they will one day drive a car and go to college, so it's not
like he's got this unusually strong, burning desire to fly. Heck, he's been
flying right seat since he was 8 years old, so it's kind of "old hat" to
him, and he, too, has always just "assumed" he would learn to fly.



I would wait. He can't solo for a long time. 4 years is a long time in
the life of a 13 year old. My daughter is 14 and started lessons at 12.
Then she got interested in other things. friends, boys, cars. $1000 down
the tubes.

jerry

Jay Honeck wrote:
My son, age 13, is planning to take flight lessons this summer. My
wife and I are both pilots, so he has been flying since birth.

Any parents out there gone through the same experience? My concerns
a

The latest AOPA Flight Training magazin has an interesting article on this
subject, well worth reading.

jue

Don Tuite wrote:

Jay, don't over-analyze. Go ahead, but let the kid know he can bail
(and come back) without a big scene. Some days it will seem like a
good idea; some days it won't.

That's the best advice. If a young teen thinks you're keen to have him
do something, he'll probably attempt to "lose interest" and note your
reaction. Offer to him, support him, make the invitations, and don't
be crazed if he doesn't take an interest. He'll change his mind or
not.

Then, if you like, as he gets closer to solo age and to whatever
you'll consider appropriate one-on-one-dating age, offer it to him
again and see what he does. :-)

Rob