Wow, so a rare and small bunch indeed.

I do not think just any old monkey can do this to be honest. Let's step back and look at private pilot training for a second. You're strapping on a 30+ year old rickety 'ol aircraft that gets bounced around like a toy when a butterfly flaps its wings. You are controlling this aircraft on 4 dimensions let's say (x, y, z, and airspeed). You are using your hands and feet together to accomplish literally do-or-die maneuvers (a.k.a. final approach) in a way that is completely foreign to you. Think about being bounced all around, blown left and right on final, up and down like a roller coaster in a small single piston....you think ANYBODY could sit through that calmly? You're operating in an ever-more complex airspace system. You are operating in complete chaos (a.k.a. weather...weather is chaos even on a calm day). You are actively avoiding other air traffic (the old saying "the sky is big, you'll never hit anything" is the biggest bunch of BULL ever). In order to pass the written and oral, you have to take in a *vast* amount of material covering a very broad range. Ultimately, you need the courage (let's face it, flying is a *little* scary) and the perseverance to get through the program.

I don't think "any 'ol monkey" could do that. I think you guys truly are a special group and I hope to join your ranks in the coming months.

Dont know most Mondkeys are used to flying between the trees so should be used to it and naturals!

Hope Fuji has plenty of Bananas for the training sessions

Pace (wrecking this thread :E )

Pace,

I am honestly not quite understanding the Fuji thing at all, care to explain? :O

Well I suspect we are all amazed at some of the people who manage to get a driving licence.

Pace - yeah, I'll supply the bananas, you organise the TV crew, and we'll do it somewhere that doesnt need RT. I reckon we should be on to a winner.

Fuji is an instructor who is a forum friend I am just adding a bit of humour to this thread a light hearted tease.

The picture of Fuji training a monkey to fly amused me.

But what an idea if it was possible ?

Pace

Shame they already gave me a licence, do you think 'Monkey gets CPL' would have as much appeal?

If so I'll give you my agent's contact details.

I had my first taste of flying before I get back to England to do my PPL. A friend took me up in his Pitts S-2A for a "spin" (no pun intended), on the way back from the box he lat me fly it a bit and take it inverted. An awesome experience. I thought I was hooked on flying already, but this was so much more.

Fuji, if you want a specimen I can recommend one of my ex-students - human by genetics alone. However, based on that small sample size it would be impossible to teach a monkey to fly to solo standards...

Dont forget, who was the first astronaut......?

And I am told that when testing the effects of acceleration on the body, they strapped a sheep to the sled at Farnborough....

No doubt the sheep thought they were .....................MAAAAAD :}

How Many Pilots in the World
 

There are just over 600,000 pilots registered in the USA...

Using fuzzy math with the rest of the world having 1/3 the value of USA and then calculating for world population would put the Pilot total at between 4 and 5 million. That would be a fair bet given the growth in China and South America.

Given that RAE Farnborough had a succession of Welsh directors (to the extent that it was often said to have been run by the 'Tafia'), the above information is more than a little worrying. Was the sled actually intended to move with said sheep aboard?

Could a monkey do a better stall turn in the Yak than I could? Probably!

The really amazing thing to consider, IMO, is that in all of human history it was only from 20th century that ANYONE had the option of becoming a pilot. Countless generations looked up to the skies, observed the birds, but only very recently has it even been possible for anyone to actually 'slip the surly bonds'.

Those of us that did are indeed privileged to have been born at a time when we could. What's stopping everyone else?

And no, being pax in an airliner doesn't count, That's commuting, not flying.

If 0.1% of the population is a pilot, how many are aircraft owner?

Commercial pilots - almost none. PPLs and gliding qualification holders many more!

Diamond gliding badge - that's a small club.

Diamond badge on a glider designed before 1950, now we are getting into a really small club.

What a pointless thread. Got all the way down here and what have we learnt-pretty much zilch. This should be in JB. So perhaps I`ll start a new thread entitled "How many punctures around the world have PPL`s had on landing". I`ll start the ball rolling with one at Stapleford in 2010. :zzz:

A question for the instructors. How common is it for a student to prove simply incapable of getting a licence? Or even of going solo?

I'm not talking about failing medicals, running out of money, losing interest or just deciding they've gone as far as they wanted. Just any who turn out not to have the basic ability. I can't believe there are many.

the canadian figures given by a previous poster work out to 1 in 900 people have a pilots licence.

the figure for australia I calculated about a decade ago was 1 in 742 people have a pilots licence.

W8