Was posting at the same time as High_Expect, will definitely look into Air Cadets (had already mentioned some kind of cadets if he wanted to go into the military).
Gliding is an excellent idea. I had also been thinking that university isn't just for degree getting, I do know people who took up gliding at university, so it can be a time of extracurricular stuff you haven't managed earlier in life.
tggzzz, whilst I hadn't used the word obstacles, your suggestion is totally in line with my parenting philosophy.
He's a bright kid (possibly genius level) and whilst he isn't a big fan of school, mostly because it is too easy, he has gradually come to see the need of it and seems to be really getting into some of the lifestyle things that are on the curriculum these days - this has added to his safety conscious attitude to life, he's the kid that would walk his bike home if he didn't have a helmet, even if there was no adult there to tell him to do that, or even if there was an adult there telling him is was ok to do it! This is one of the reasons I think he would be good as a pilot, you can't convince him not to follow key rules.
Not colour blind, doesn't need glasses for distance (I did at his age), not sure if my eyesight is good enough for flying, but I have family who definitely aren't, but hopefully that gene pool is diluted! Hearing seems to be fine. One thing I am slightly concerned about is height, no idea what the minimum height is for an airline pilot, but his projected adult height from early measurements is 4'10", but he's past 4'6" at age 10 and nowhere near puberty, so I'd expect him to exceed that projection, but who knows how much, I'm hoping he'll make it to my height (5'5").
Thanks for all the help and ideas.