Targeting 'elder' pilots

“We who’ve been flying a while too often picture ‘elder pilots’ as hobbling around on canes, but among our biggest challenges is that many of our prospects think they’re too old to become pilots at age 35 or 40,” Greg Brown writes in his book, The Savvy Flight Instructor. “So we must broaden our thinking on ‘marketing to mature audiences’ to convince 40- to 70-year-olds that they’re plenty young enough to fly, while keeping the door open to attract others into their 70s and even 80s.”

Brown notes that many people don’t even have the time or money to start flight training until they’re into their 40s, 50s, and 60s. “In today’s world, most folks in those age ranges are plenty healthy and fit to fly.”

It’s important to address older pilots’ training expectations right up front, Brown says. “Most will take significantly longer to master flight than their younger peers. This is partly due to the slower reflexes and learning that naturally come with age. It also arises from greater risk adversity, which is of course an excellent safety trait.”

I can attest to this. As a student pilot just turned 40, it took me 20 hours to solo, and 120 to finish the private pilot checkride. Luckily, at the time I wasn’t cognizant of the stresses pilots place on themselves to solo in a certain number of hours or finish up the checkride in 40 hours. I knew it was taking me longer than some people, but I chalked my slower progress up to not having good hand-eye coordination because I did not grow up playing video games. When I started the instrument rating at age 48, however, I was by then aware of the effect my age would have on this difficult rating.

Other people are not so attuned. Brown writes that a 48-year-old friend took 29 hours to solo and 91 hours to pass the private pilot checkride. He beat himself up for not meeting his own high expectations, and at one point asked his CFI, “Will you level with me if I’m one of those people who can never learn to do this?” The friend’s CFI said this: “Assume it’ll take you two or three times longer than a young person does.” As Brown emphasizes, “That’s great advice we should be sharing early in the training process.”

Even when we’re aware of our own age-related learning issues, we can still set our expectations too high. I’m now 60, and I recently purchased a share in a Cessna 182. Before I could fly the high-performance bird solo, I needed a checkout. With more than a thousand hours in my logbook, including hundreds of hours of C–172 time, I figured the checkout would last no more than 5 hours. I was wrong; it took 8 hours before the instructor was satisfied that I could fly the airplane safely. And I agree with his assessment.

Many prospective flight students want to know what kind of a hit their budget is going to take in terms of hours and training. Flight schools often do their best to give an estimate, while cautioning that not everyone learns the same, and it depends on factors such as weather and the like. Make sure you adjust those estimates accordingly when talking to older flight students. They will appreciate your candor.