What age is appropriate to start flight lessons?

[Lindberg]

Thet are kids. It's the parents job to understand their kid and set appropriate limits, not the flight instructors.

What if there's not room for the kid, the instructor, and the parents in the aircraft? I'm sure there's a four-seat glider out there somewhere, but I've never seen one. I've also never heard of a parent who's not a CFI signing a solo endorsement.

 

[Tools]

Yep!! That is TRUE!!

 

[kmacht]

@Tools can back me up on this one. Sometimes the parents are the problem more than the kids.

Fully agree but ultimately the parents are responsible for the kids and their decisions, not the CFI. We can probably go round and round with both sides of the argument and we would both be right depending on the specific circumstance. My only point was that they are still Kids and have everything going on and associated with being a kid/teenager. Some kids can handle it and would be safe flying, some not so much. It’s not possible to say what age is appropriate to start flying lessons as each kid is different but please remember that they are still just kids and in their world things change quickly and consequences of their decisions aren’t always understood.

I can say that I probably would have had no place in a cockpit when I was a teenager even though I was a responsible and hard working kid with good grades and never got into trouble. It wasn’t until my late 20s that I had the chance to start flying and it’s now in my 40s that I realize what an impact it would be to others should I make a bad decision and auger in. I doubt you will find many teenagers today that really grasp the impact they would have on not just themselves but everyone else if they don’t make the right decisions every time they fly. Just my experience but maybe not everyone’s.

 

[Lindberg]

Fully agree but ultimately the parents are responsible for the kids and their decisions, not the CFI.

If a 12-year-old is taking flying lessons, the parents have already signed off on it, right?

 

[David Kagey]

Beyond the legal requirements on age for getting specific certifications, what do you think is an appropriate age to start 'formal' flight training?

Backstory: My 10 y/o is officially hooked on airplanes/jets right now. After his first trip to OSH with me, his older brother, and my dad in '22, the bait was set. After trip to OSH with my dad this year, he's swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. He's constantly talking and asking about airplanes. He has 'decided' that he wants to fly jets in the Air Force (my 25-year Navy veteran father-in-law has made it clear that Navy has jets, too). We fly an RV-10, which is obviously too much airplane for initial training for a kid, but just thinking ahead, there are a couple of glider operations within reach of here and the pilot community is big enough around here, we could start planning ahead a bit if this idea of him flying (in any capacity, even a lowly "I just fly for fun" like I tell the airline guys around here) seems to have legs.

Our G'daughter just soloed the morning of her 16th BD. Got her DL in the afternoon. Guess she has her priorities right

 

[CJones]

Our G'daughter just soloed the morning of her 16th BD. Got her DL in the afternoon. Guess she has her priorities right

That is awesome. She will always be able to say "I got my pilot's license before my driver's license". That's a great story to have.