Older students...not another 'am I too old' thread

[mark_]

I'm curious to hear from those who have learned to fly a helicopter when they were older than the average 20 something student. Also curious to hear from instructors who have had students in their 40s and 50s. We all know that the older we are the slower we learn, and while all have different levels of natural ability, how much harder is to learn when we are older?

[Whirlygig]

I was 38 when I did my PPL. Took longer than the "supposed average" of 70 hours but I cannot comment on whether I would have found it easier if I had done it ten years previously - it may be down to age and slower reactions or I may just be a crap pilot!!!

Cheers

Whirls

[Bertie Thruster]

On day one I was told I would most likely fail the Army pilots course as I was 28. They even showed me a graph of failure rate v age!

[timex]

I was 30 on my course, didn't seem any harder than the other guys found it.

[Winnie]

From the other perspective, how about teaching it?

Anyways, I have had a few students that could be considered 'older' than average, the oldest about 65 i believe.

It seems the older chaps SOMETIMES have more of a struggle with retaining knowledge, and remembering little things from flight to flight.
At other times, no worries!

It depends I guess on your own wants and abilities?

Cheers
Hagar.

[Ascend Charlie]

Without memory, you cannot develop judgment - you have to be able to recall what worked and what didn't work, and make sure you only use the techniques that DID work.
I have had students up to 60 and most of them were plodders, one took 70 hours to go solo and then quit because he had at least achieved something. Another kept trying to pass his biennnial flight review but could not judge where he was going to touch down off an auto and couldn't remember what a normal glideslope looked like.

Sadly, I am 60 now, and there are 3 things about old age.
The first is that your memory fades.

The ...... umm ...
:8

[Smokeyboy]

Started my PPL-H a year ago at 47. Took me six weeks and did my checkride at 46 hours. No previous flying experience, except for model helis. Highly motivated and deticated. TT to date is 101.5 hours.

[handbag]

apart from a big pile of cash - what do you have to lose? Go for it and live happy !

[Flyting]

From an instructors point of view, I found on average, that the older the student was (within reason of course – we are talking middle agedish) the more easy it was for me to teach them... They were more knowledgeable, not in such a hurry to do everything (had the money), more safety conscious - which took a lot off my shoulders… and more reliable with everything as a whole. Sure there was the odd one that I had to spend a little extra time teaching something but in the end that extra time in the cockpit paid off for their flying…

Besides that, they often would like to fly somewhere for lunch and then flipped for the bill....:}

The thing to remember when you do your training, is to never compare yourself to other students. You might struggle at one thing where the younger, or any other student for that matter, would pick it up in 15 minutes, and visa versa... just enjoy the time flying and learning... :ok:

[rotorfan]

Started at age 41, after 18 years of PPL plank flight. Wanted to see if I could do it, having read how hard it was. Took about 10 hours to get a hover in the 22. Soloed at 20 hours, per the SFAR. About 60 hours by checkride time, because it took 22 months to complete. Fly some :O, run out of money :mad:, work a lot :(, repeat....:ugh:

[muffin]

I first started when I was 56 although I had 25 years fixed wing experience. I soloed in about 15 hours and completed the course in 6 months.

[EN48]

very old guys (60+), with no prior flight time often take quite a bit longer as their reactions just aren't as quick.


Who you calling "very old?" Really depends on the individual. Sixty is the new forty. I started training in helicopters in early 2007 at age 64 in a 480B and had PPL within 6 months, then I-H and CPL-H, and now finishing up CFI-H at 68 in my own B407. Along the way soloed in R22 and R44. My principal instructor, a very seasoned guy with 20K+ hours, tells me I fly better than many he has worked with. He calls me with questions on advanced avionics. However, I have been flying fixed wing since age 23. The Designated Examiner I take my checkrides with is 70+. Hoping to be flying safely at 80; we'll see. I do take flying quite seriously, do a lot of recurrent training, and have a strong safety mindset, all of which helps.

[Peter-RB]

I suppose I am a very old guy, I took the plunge for a PPL when I was 52yrs, I soloed at 19hrs and passed PPL at 40hrs,

at six/Seven hours I almost gave up becuase I found staying in one spot whilst hovering extremely difficult, but Lady FI wound up my mans superior brains cells by saying
"Look if I can do this , so can you",,, mentally squeezing my nuts like that made it worse, so off we went for a coffee, half an hour later out again and hey I found the sweet spot and managed to connect eyes, arse and hand together, I could then hover dead still time after time, so Old Dogs can learn new tricks, all it needs is a coffee..!:D
Peter R-B
Vfrpilotpb

[thepross]

I guess, if you are Old, Bored and Rich- go for it...