Flying lesson suggestions for my 14 year old son

At the top of my son's Christmas list are flight lessons.

I should say that he's very responsible, gets good grades, and is quite mature. He also spends a lot of time on flight simulators on the PC.

I will make some calls to the county airport, but I thought I would start here.

The www.AOPA.org website has some good help. Should I offer to get him Sport Rated to start? Is there online training for basic knowledge, like boaterexam.com has for boats?

Any recommendations or shared experiences would be most welcome. Thanks!

Matt

 

Considering he can't solo until 16 and get a license until 17 he'll either be building a lot of dual instruction time beyond what is required even for a regular PPL, or he'll get bored if trying to space out the required training over 2-3 yrs (e.g. flying only once per month). An option, if locally available, would be to work towards a glider rating first. He would learn valuable skills and probably have some great experiences helping glider ops.

 

I would look at gliders for a 14 year old.

My kids have been learning (daughter just turned 17, son is 20), and it's a great experience. But if there is a glider operation somewhere around, that's where I would start.

It's getting hard to find good CFIs! Okay, it's always been hard to find good ones, but at least in the past there was more of a choice.

 

I started younger than your son going about once a month until I turned 15. At 15 I flew much more frequently until I soloed. By the time I soloed, flying was second nature. By the time I turned 17, I killed the PPL check ride. I never got bored, but that's probably because I had good instructors varying it up all along the way.

I would not bother with the light sport license. It's really not all that useful, and a full PPL isn't much more difficult (if at all).

 

Sailplane skills are invaluable and sailplanes are a joy to fly and teach more about meteorology and how to use it.

 

Interesting stuff. Thank you.

There’s a sailplane location just as far (time-wise, not distance) as the county airport.

When did 17 become the age for a PPL? I could’ve sworn that there was no age requirement when I was young. But I’m often wrong, which you’d know if you follow my posts!

Matt

 

From Wiki:
Different ages for Student Certificate and Private Certificate:

"The minimum age for a Student Pilot Certificate is 14 for balloons and gliders, and 16 for powered flight (airplanes, helicopters, and gyroplanes).

The minimum age for a Private Pilot Certificate is 16 for balloons and gliders, and 17 for powered flight (airplanes, helicopters, and gyroplanes). Pilots can begin training at any age and can solo balloons and gliders from age 14, and powered aircraft from age 16"

 

Before 1976, otherwise I got cheated.

 

I didn't start lessons until I was 16 since that was the age for solo. Part of the excitement, and challenge, for me was to see how soon (# of hrs) you were signed off for solo. This will of course vary depending on many things, including your instructor, type of school, and where you train, i.e. at controlled airport you will eat up hrs ($) just taxiing around and waiting for TO. IMO training at a larger field also does not challenge a student in the landing phase of flight. I believe my training at a small 25ft wide strip cutout of a cornfield had a huge positive impact on my piloting skills. This is also something glider training will promote, since there are no go arounds or power adjustments on short final. I understand that where you train is not always something you can control easily, which makes it more imperative to find a good instructor who can teach these aspects. Note: landing in 500 ft on a 5000 ft runway is much much easier than landing in 500ft on a 1400 ft runway.

Nothing wrong with starting early, especially if the goal is to continue on with advanced training (e.g. instrument, commercial, etc). As Joker mentioned, if anything it will make the PPL check ride a breeze. You never stop learning and your son will always be flying with an instructor at times throughout his time as a pilot.

 

Faulty memory here!



Matt

 

But, don't discount real time training in a controlled airspace. I trained out of KVGT (North Las Vegas). It's a controlled airport with a lot of business traffic, tour flights, and various other commercial operators buzzing around all the time. There's a lot to be said for knowing how to properly navigate in a busy airspace.

 

Agree that a pilot must learn those procedures and be comfortable in that environment. However, when starting out from zero the focus should be 100% on learning how to fly an airplane not manage radio traffic. So all you are doing is paying for the extra time involved in operating in such an environment while your instructor divides his time between teaching you and playing co-pilot (i.e. the guy who talks on the radio). IMHO YMMV

 

I really don't remember my instructor working the radios but for my first couple of lessons. I don't know, radio work just wasn't an issue for me. I kind of enjoyed it. Of course, at least for a while, I always tried to fly as early in the morning as possible, so traffic wasn't too bad.

 

Don't do sport pilot.
If you want a book, you can get him the airplane flying handbook. It can be a little dry though- it's available online for free or in print for a fee.

As previously stated a Cessna Pilot Center will offer a course through King Schools. The CFI will tell you how they want to handle that portion of the training.

He could technically take an online course from King or MZeroA, get his endorsement for the ground school and take the written test having never flown a lesson.

 

There is a 2yr time limit on the validity of the knowledge test result, i.e. need to complete the check ride within 2yrs.

 

I was going to mention this. Sporty's has a pretty good app-based program that can be done on any tablet. I utilized their app when I got back into flying after a good long layoff. I found it to be much better and more useful than the old King tapes I had.

It actually seems pretty common now days that people do a full ground school and pass their written before actually starting to fly.

 

A suggestion: a Discovery Flight is an inexpensive way to get a taste for it. Then, buy a nice simulator setup with the proper controls for him to work on for a year. He could also start listening to ATC at various airports online during the timeframe. At 15 he can start work on the written & flight lessons, and grab the certificate right at 16. He could actually have a decent amount of hours under his belt by the time he gets there.

 

That's what I was thinking about doing for my instrument rating.

 

I forgot about that.

 

don't know if this is still current...
too lazy to check in the Regs
if one took lessons from a flight school with approved curriculum the requirements were less ( hours) to get a PPL vs training with an independent instructor... flight and instructor time is not cheap

choosing a certified curriculum school can save on costs

choosing a flight school with multiple planes and instructors helps by maintaining a tight schedule vs random lessons which can cause a lot of review refresh time before moving on

 

If a kid wants to learn to fly....I say....get 'em in a plane. Period. Doesn't matter the age.

but that's me