I started flying at 16 and have never had an FBO deny courtesy car due to age. Flying the airplane to the FBO is normally good enough for most to figure you won’t wreck their car.
Bad gamble. The courtesy car is the second most dangerous part of flying, not only because of the car having no brakes and being grossly out of alignment, but also because of our tendency to drive on the centerline when we just got done flying. (The most dangerous part of flying is, of course, getting in and out of the airplane. Lacerate your forehead on a Cub upper door, plant your face in the asphalt getting out of an RV, or break your leg and spine trying to yoga your way into a Meridian, and you’ll know what I mean.)
Courtesy car policies vary wildly around the country and calling ahead is good advice. Some places will need a blood sample, others are very much “kick the tires and light the fires” affairs. One time, an A&P wrenching on his plane gave me his personal pickup keys because the courtesy car battery was dead, and another time I felt like using the car was such a burden on the FBO that I got an Uber instead. Go with the flow of where you are traveling. But one thing is a constant. If the check engine light is off, you are not in the courtesy car and the police will probably be called when Jetset Executive Smith or FBO Owner Jones notices his car is missing.
Actually, as with all rules, there’s an exception to that one. Two, really. First, sometimes the CEL has burned out. And second, I’ve used an airport courtesy car that predated the CEL as we know it today. Just as I was commenting that it wasn’t lit and thinking the car was too old to have a light, it came on, but it was intermittent unlike the new ones that stay on until reset through OBD2.
All jokes aside, though, I’d rather hand my keys to a teenager who is responsible enough to solo an airplane than to any of the numerous “adult” drivers who struggle to understand whose turn it is at the four-way stop or what that flashing yellow arrow could mean. You should be fine.
