Good age to start (sim)flying?

[palafox 0]

In your opinion, what would be a good age to initiate a child to simflight? I can't speak from my own experience, since I was first exposed at 22, so many years ago. My 6-year old boy is asking me to let him messing with daddy's cool looking planes. Of course, sharing this hobby with him would be great, but I'm afraid he's too young and I tell him so. I mean, I'd like to introduce him to simflying as seriously as possible, not as a mere game.Thanks in advance.JAMM

[Guest zacharace]

Although simming is a great hobby, six is definitely too young, only because of the complexity and patience required to have fun with/while simming. As I fly as realistically as possible, I can't imagine anyone with an attention span that short (correct me if I'm wrong) learning how to start a cold and dark plane from the gate, not to mention getting it off the ground. I guess if you kept it simple (maybe getting it off the ground for him first), it could work--and maybe even be fun. Everyone has different flying/simming styles, of course, and yours may be more flexible than mine.Regardless, good luck!

[momtchil 32]

In your opinion, what would be a good age to initiate a child to simflight? I can't speak from my own experience, since I was first exposed at 22, so many years ago. My 6-year old boy is asking me to let him messing with daddy's cool looking planes. Of course, sharing this hobby with him would be great, but I'm afraid he's too young and I tell him so. I mean, I'd like to introduce him to simflying as seriously as possible, not as a mere game.Thanks in advance.JAMM

Well I started simming in 1995 , when I was 12-14, my first attempts were on a Windows 95 PC with 'Su-27 Squadron Commander's Edition' and 'A-10 Cuba' after that I started to use the Microsoft Flight Simulator stuff and Fly as well. I've pretty much used all the mainstream flight sims to this day. For me I always wanted to be a pilot (I flew with my family for the first time before I was even 1) so I started as soon as I could figure out how to do this on one of my first simple PCs. This was the cheapest way to learn. I haven't got any pilot relatives or simflyers (I'm the first in the family) so I basically had to figure everything out myself. I think your kid's pretty lucky to have someone who can introduce him to this.However at 6 he may be a little too young and may loose interest pretty quickly due to the complexities of the simulation, it might be worth waiting for 2-3 more years. Either way if he's interested now, why not show him around your hobby. It could be worth a shot to show him around and demonstrate a landing in a simple good-looking GA type for example. He may well find that fascinating. Don't go into the complexities of start-ups or aircraft systems or procedures - Show him how to take off, do some maneuvers 'a loop for example' and then land (I myself still enjoy doing that sometimes - a break from the complexities). Also you might have a better chance with a Combat Flight Sim such as IL-2 and demonstrate a shoot down of an enemy aircraft, as he's only 6 this is bound to interest him more.When I was 6 I was already really interested in planes. If one of my relatives tried to introduce me to flight simming then I would have lapped up at the chance. Probably wouldn't have been able to do much or understand everything but I would have enjoyed it nonetheless.

[N60JBravo 27]

All due respect, I disagree with the other posters.Let him go!!!Take off in the default Cub and let him fly it for a while.Why stifle his interest?Who cares if he does it wrong or crashes all the time.He is at such an impressionable age, I suggest you encourage him to try.The worst that can happen is he quickly loses interest. Who cares?Do not pass up the opportunity to bond with your son doing something daddy enjoys. That alone will mean more to him than what happens in the sim.Let him fly!!!regards,JoePS. Read my signature

[Guest Gander]

A 10 y/o granddaughter spent a week with us last month and went totally nuts over flite simming. Once I showed her the basics, using the default DC-3 on FS9, she spent literally hours flying -- not just "playing" at crashing it, video game style, but seriously flying it: improving her approaches and landings, etc.I showed her other airplanes, and she briefly tried the Wright Brothers Flyer out of curiosity, but she agreed a stable, forgiving airplane like the DC-3 was one of the better ones to learn the basics on. Before her stay was over my wife got her a book about Amelia Earhart, and now she wants to fly the default Lockheed Vega next time she visits.In her case, 10 was plenty mature enough to seriously enjoy learning to fly -- not merely play like a vidio game for a few minutes, get bored, crash the plane, and quit. Repeatedly, she'd spend over an hour at a time flying, thoroughly engrossed in it. However, she is extremely high I.Q., and very precocious in almost all areas (reads 4-5 grades above her current school level, etc.) so she's not a very typical 10 year old. She has an older, more age-typical brother, for example, who I suspect would have been thoroughly bored if he'd had the opportunity to sim even when he was 15 or older. So it depends on mental maturity level, as well as basic interests of course. For an interested person, I suspect the typical 14 y/o maturity might be about right.(This little 10 year old girl's a pistol. During her visit, the only thing she loved more than simming was driving the big (6 passenger) golf cart we rented to take us around the 4 miles of pathways at an outdoor museum we visited. She'd never operated any vehicle more high-tech than her bike before, but she got the golf cart controls down pat in no time and was an excellent chauffeur. The next time I'm in the Washington, DC area by golly I think I'll take her to the Smithsonian Air & Space and give her a ride in the FA-18 attack jet simulator. Now THAT's the Real Deal: pivots a full 360 degrees on all 3 axes! Bright kids are fun: they offer a ray of hope for the future.)

[Murmur 3,944]

I completely agree with N60JBravo! :(I don't think he's too young. Try to second and indulge his curiosity (children are the most curious beings in the world!), and don't be too worried about "serious" flying: he'll have plenty of years to learn how to follow a VOR radial :( Just follow his curiosity and I'm sure you'll soon find yourself teaching him the basics of aviation, physics, technology, etc. Don't try to force him on subjects he considers boring, or you risk a rejection. In short, share your "game" with him and make sure you don't appear "jealous" of it. :( Marco

[Guest dougwells]

I agree with the letting your son fly.I have a 6 year old and 9 year old daughter. They both have been sim flying with me for the past 2 years. Initially, I took off for them and trimmed the airplane for level flight. I then showed them how to hold their heading and altitude. They got it easily enought.Next I would line them up with a straight in approach at a major airport (SLC in our case) and have them land on he 12,000 foot runways. They are so wide (200 feet or so) that it was pretty easy for them. Now they both can take off, fly around and land on water with the defaul Grumman Goose. My six year old still flies it with me. My 9 year old has lost interest but sometimes flies if one of her friends is over and I am flying.Make it easy. Keep it short (10-15 minutes) and bring out some of the cool airplanes (like the Goose for my kids).Have fun!

[Dillon 2,197]

I take my son up in the real thing most of the time when I fly so that's more than exposing him to simming, he's seeing it all first hand. He has a whole different perspective on simming because of it (he looks at it seriously when I'm practicing before flight)... Speaking of myself I had the bug for flying when I first found out man could fly, that was about 2 years old... I'm thankful for what we have today on the home PC. If my son was into flying like I was (he just turned six) I'd introduce him to the default birds of Flight Simulator but as of today he's more into Power Rangers. The default birds are easy enough for him to jump in. If I were his age today with the tools we have now there's no question I'd be into this hobby. The thing is your kid has to have the interest and if he does and is asking you don't hold him back. The flying bug is something we're all born with and it's easy to tell. I'd let your kid have at it and watch his interest grow. It's a great incentive for him to get good grades in school. I just hope by the time todays kids come of age pilots are appreciated more in the real world than what we're currently seeing. Nothing can kill a dream like working for commuter airlines these days (which is how many have to start before the majors pick them up)...

[eriksenp 0]

Let him play with it all he wants. When it gets to a point where he picks up something heavy and out of frustration whacks the monitor with it, it's time to step in.

[dmaher 0]

Let him go for it! I remember being fascinated with my dad

[Peter Clemenko 0]

I started when I was 8, so really, 6 isn't too young if you ask me. As long as they can figure out the basics, let them fly, just not on VATSIM!

[Guest jonthedoors]

Well I started simming in 1995 , when I was 12-14, my first attempts were on a Windows 95 PC with 'Su-27 Squadron Commander's Edition' and 'A-10 Cuba'

Same! Haha! I still have A10 Cuba, it's the game that got me into simming. It's still brilliant to this day!

[Peter Clemenko 0]

Same! Haha! I still have A10 Cuba, it's the game that got me into simming. It's still brilliant to this day!

Oh I loved A-10 Cuba way back when, especially the quotes you would hear when you died or were captured in the map screen :)On a side note, if your child is under 10, they may be a little young for DCS Black Shark or Falcon 4.0 :)

[Guest jshyluk]

I once got dressed down for suggesting that children and flight sim do not mix. I don't have any kids of my own, and all the kids I do know are absolutely not into flight sim at all. So what do I know?All I figure is, if there's something you don't want the kid to physically break, then the kid shouldn't be doing it without close supervision. Children are way different now than they were when I was little. There are a few add-ons designed to get kids into flight sim (or at least that try to be kid-friendly). Kids are really good with X-Box-type game controllers, way better than I am. FSX is actually a lot of fun with a game controller. If you have one of those, start off with the Trike. Work up to the Cessna 172 or the Maule, or some such. I would stay away from taildraggers until you get rudder control, although I guess you could just turn the flight models all to easy. Turn off collisions, definitely, unless you want to teach your children about loading screens. Some of my clearest chilhood memories of that age are my Dad telling me that I am too young to help him with mechanical stuff. Not that I blame Dad now, as he was right. But even so, flight sim is made to be played around with hard. If your kid can be trusted with a computer, he or she can be trusted with flight sim.Jeff ShylukSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

[momtchil 32]

Same! Haha! I still have A10 Cuba, it's the game that got me into simming. It's still brilliant to this day!

Yup, 'A-10 Cuba' was brilliant - I've still got it too. They did a really good job on the limited hardware available back then. As a matter of fact I've just had a go on it for old times sake (had to dust-off my old PC for that) and its still great, it put a smile on my face.Anybody else used the early 'Su-27 Flanker' sims that were out at around the same time? These were also really good, made by SSI (Strategic Simulations). These were the predecessors to 'Flanker 2.0', which in turn is the predecessor to 'Lock-On'.Frankly I think we, in the early 90s, were at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to flight simulation compared to today's situation. Home computers were still a relatively new concept (and slow) and I don't think there was much realistic flight simming software available to the general public (at least in Europe) until Windows 95. Before: 'A-10'; 'Su-27'; the early Falcon and Microsoft Flight Simulator stuff; and Fly; (all released after 1994) I really do not remember anything being available for home use. Prior to that the only realistic simulators you could use were Government or Corporate ones - and I (like most people) had no access to these. In today's situation I think its possible to get into flight simming at a much younger age due to the choice of software and powerful hardware available.It would be interesting to see what the situation will be in 10 years time, I'd like to think it'd be even better than today's. Flight Simulation software is bound to improve and with the improvements in hardware we're likely to see some incredibly realistic results.