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Hey, anyone read AVWeb here? (www.avweb.com)

they had an article about younger age student pilots and it seems people always have mixed views on the subject

i won't say my position just yet, although some of you may know some of it from previous postings but i just wanted to bring up a healthy discussion on it

also for any of those interested i wrote a letter to AVWeb and the put it in this weeks AVmail that's here
www.avweb.com/news/avm...064-1.html

another guy replied to the article too and like i said our views differed

and FYI i'm Mike so i'm the second letter about the topic, not the first one


~S~

I'm all for it, took my first flying lessons when I was 14. At that age, it's easy to get overwhelmed and the retention level after each lesson may not be as high as a result, but my instructor and I agreed to limit to 1/2 hour lessons instead of the usual hour, and it got much easier. Shortly afterwards, I was doing stalls, spins, and landings.

Never reached the solo stage or finished up with my license, due to several factors, but could have. My opinion here is that if all 3 parties involved - student, parents AND instructor - have no problem with flight training at a young age, then anyone else's opinion is an insignificant factor.

- JG300-Stoopy

I'm all for it, took my first flying lessons when I was 14. At that age, it's easy to get overwhelmed and the retention level after each lesson may not be as high as a result, but my instructor and I agreed to limit to 1/2 hour lessons instead of the usual hour, and it got much easier. Shortly afterwards, I was doing stalls, spins, and landings.

Never reached the solo stage or finished up with my license, due to several factors, but could have. My opinion here is that if all 3 parties involved - student, parents AND instructor - have no problem with flight training at a young age, then anyone else's opinion is an insignificant factor.

in the spirit of Ascout's neeeeneer neeeeeneer:

i started the summer before i turned 12, hehe needed 2 cushions and all, did hour lessons, but only wound up doing 7 hrs in the course of 3 years, still managed to do most everything i could, just got too expensive, hence why i'm going back but you already know that

hehe the one thing that made me jealous though was....Spins!, hehe i wish they'da let me do spins, actually i think at the time i don't know if i woulda felt comfortable falling out of the sky

but man, being in Jersey that was great, i actually flew to and around the statue of liberty and looked down on the intrepid before i ever bothered to go there in person (lots of helo traffic in that area), but i'm sure with all that's happened now that area is probably not as loose as it used to be

i think my instructor prolly talked with ATC and all that, i usually let him do that cause i was embarrassed to talk with my prepubescent voice, hehe

then on the way back, we flew over part of the shore called Sandy Hook but idled our engine, and when we were about 100 feet above the sunbathers, opened her up, hehe you saw all the startled people looking up, man i'll remember that stuff as long as i live

but yea, right around the time i stopped (not because of it though) that like 11 or 12 year old girl had crashed trying to break the age record for crossing the nation, but if you looked into that one, they took off in weather that was too much for her (and i guess her instructor too)

for the most part though like you said, if it's the kid's dream, the parents are cool with it,, and the instructor is cool, then everything should be fine

since i was going back i checked to see if my old instructor was still there, though i doubted it, turns out he wasn't so i'll have to get a new one, but man, i hope he's as cool as my old one, and i can't wait for spring, hehe

~S~