The ones who have been flying the plane since they were 12? Not to take away from dabbling in simulators (any aviation activity is a good thing!) but people do still fly around in real planes when they are kids… and then fly that same plane solo on their 16th birthday
Well, given that there are about 40,000 pilots in the UK, there might be up to 100,000 kids who get substantial hands-on flying time with parents/grandparents. But I suspect the true number would be rather less. There are 40,000 people in the air training corps. There are 12,000,000 kids here overall. I don’t know how many simmers there are, but I suspect that the numbers dwarf those with access to real world aircraft.
When I was a teenager, my monthly income was £15 which would have just covered public transport to the nearest airport and back, let alone actually flying. I had to save up for a year just to cover the cost of flight simulator and a joystick. We couldn’t afford a computer until I was 15. I didn’t count myself as hard-up. I could have spent the money on a single flying lesson.
At 15 I used to ride my 125 cc mototcycle to the airport… I bought my first motorcycle for $25, with money I earned shoveling snow (really) The plane was my dad’s – an old C150 parked outside that it seems to me cost about as much as a very nice motorcycle for him to buy at that time, and by the time he reached his late 40s he could afford it.
The best stick and rudder pilot I know grew up the son of a divorced FBO owner. When they’d go somewhere he used to beg to take the Citabria they rented out because he’d fly in the front seat with dad in the back, where he couldn’t be seen. I don’t believe there was a lot of wealth involved 
…when they saw those visuals! They don’t get that in their multi million $$ sims, belive me.
But then, you don’t need them there. Most of the simulator time is spent practicing emergencies, at night in IMC and icing conditions to make it more interesting. The single-engine instrument approach at marginal weather flown manually on standby instruments with a sweaty oxygen mask on your face will result in a single-engine go-around in most cases because the instructor always makes sure that nothing can be seen at minimum. Only on the final landing (flapless and with no hydraulics for brakes and reversers) you will see the minimum required number of approach lights to continue – these visuals could be projected from a 1985 PC and it would make no difference.
I find sims extremely useful. I used MSFS in the late 90s before I got my ticket and, according to my instructor, it really helped, as I was already familiar with the instruments, the panel layout, etc. Mind you, this was in the US, not on some little island surrounded by a cold sea….
Today I use X-Plane, partly for fun, partly to ‘fly’ to airports that may be a bit tricky to fly into (airspace, terrain), partly to practice procedures. I think this ‘look out the window, you are not allowed to look at the instruments’ is typical UK PPL rubbish.
In my late teens, my first job was a summer job in a nursing home, but by the time I’d paid living costs all I had left was enough for a week’s holiday in Spain. I took a bus from Wales to Seville to save £100 on the fare. Could I have bought 3 lessons instead? Sure, and I once cycled 50 miles from my grandparents in a vain attempt to find the local airfield. But at the time I didn’t feel that a few short lessons would be a good use of my money and I waited until I could afford the whole course and afford to maintain a license.
The idea that a kid in the UK might take on a paper round (we don’t really do snow) and fund a significant amount of flying seems to me to be wishful thinking. Heck, I’m a medical doctor and worry that my two hours a month is profligate.
The idea that a kid in the UK might take on a paper round (we don’t really do snow) and fund a significant amount of flying seems to me to be wishful thinking.
Very much so! Maybe one could fund a couple of gliding lessons from doing newspaper rounds, but not much more. But if my son wants to take up gliding (he’s old enough for it now) I will pay for his lessons and he rather studies for school instead wasting time delivering newspapers.
