From here
Ha, the night VFR is, at least theoretically, entering into effect as of today, before the new regs are in place. Another thing (as of today) is no lower age limit before starting training. You have to be 16 before solo though. About time. The younger you start, the better pilot you become.
LeSving wrote:
Another thing (as of today) is no lower age limit before starting training. You have to be 16 before solo though.
A rule for UL flying? Ever since part-FCL you have been able to start flight training in EASA aircraft at any age – although, as you say, you must be 16 to solo. The other year my club got a query from the father of a 13-year old if his son could start training for the PPL. We could find nothing against it in the rules but to be on the safe side we asked our CAA. They replied that it was fine as long as he was physically able to fly the aircraft and mature enough to receive instruction.
We recommended that the boy should go for gliding instead until he was a couple of years older. I don’t know what became of it – he didn’t start training with us in any case.
IIRC you can get a ULM licence in France at 15 years. I think you can solo at 14years.
Ever since part-FCL you have been able to start flight training in EASA aircraft at any age
OK, haven’t payed eough attention to that obviously 
It’s more of a EASA normalizing then.
This is obviously country dependent.
In the UK, you can log lessons at age 1 year but it will be worthless. 14 years min to count towards any (ICAO?) license, 16 to go solo, 17 to apply for a PPL.
Higher limits for CPL or IR, and probably higher still for the conversion of a CPL/IR to an ATPL via the standard European 500hr route.
14 years min to count towards any (ICAO?) license, 16 to go solo, 17 to apply for a PPL.
In relation to ‘ICAO compliant’ pilot qualification, this applies under FAA regs. You can get dual instruction at any age, apply for a student pilot certificate up to 90 days before your 16th birthday (14th for gliders) and solo on your birthday. I did it, a long time ago. Then you can pass your Private checkride on your 17th birthday.
What is interesting is that logging time at say age 5 is going to be obviously worthless because in general you won’t really know what you are doing.
There is no minimum number logged hours for solo under FAA rules, the primary criterion is that the instructor signs you off as competent. So whether any given hour of instruction was useful isn’t important, it is the combined effect of an unregulated number of hours on competence that is important per the FAA regulation. 14 CFR 61.87
A friend of mine who is now the best pilot I’ve ever met was flying aerobatics with his dad looking over his shoulder (literally) from the back seat of a Citabria at age 12. I think starting early is useful.
What is interesting is that logging time at say age 5 is going to be obviously worthless because in general you won’t really know what you are doing.
Sorry to say but sometimes I really don’t get you Peter. Obviously a 5-yo can see only the instrument panel, so what better fast track to an IR is there?
This will largely depend person to person. My dad kindly funded a few lessons when I was 16 but I basically had no real interest and preferred RC model planes at the time. It wasn’t until 25 that I picked it back up, more independently and paying for it myself. Given how unproductive and unpleasant my late teens/early 20s were I don’t see how having a PPL would have helped, so I don’t regret not starting sooner.
On the other hand, plenty of people are mostly sorted by 18 so there’s no reason why they can’t start much younger.
Personally if I had kids I’d be hesitant to spend £££ putting them through lessons before, at the very most, a year before they could have a licence.
