Tips for Teaching the Older Learner

One of the first questions they often ask is, “Am I too old to learn to fly?” This is the part where the FAR/AIM is pulled out and we go over the requirements for a private pilot certificate. There is no maximum age, I say. Then we discuss the third-class medical certificate. If the learner has issues there, we discuss sport pilot or a glider rating. If they are healthy enough to obtain a third-class medical certificate, there is nothing to stop them from pursuing a private pilot certificate.

“Older” is a relative term. (Once upon a time, 40 years old was old—these days, not so much.) I prefer the term “person with significant life experience.” The term “student” has been replaced with the term “learner” in the most recent edition of the Aviation Instructor’s Handbook. This change was driven by the fact that many people who learn to fly are beyond traditional school age and may take offense at the term “student.” 

With older learners, it’s helpful to find out what the learner does/did for a living. It can help you craft metaphors to explain things. For example, you might tell a veterinarian that keeping track of the instruments during IFR flight is like watching a box of kittens—you can’t fixate on one, because you will lose track of the others.

All learners have teaching experience of some sort. They may have taught a younger sibling how to tie their shoes, trained a new employee at work, or maybe even coached a sports team. After you have demonstrated a maneuver or explained a system or concept, ask them to teach it back to you. This will give them a deeper understanding of the material and greater confidence. The learners who are parents really shine here. After all, if parents were not teachers, we’d have generations being mowed down as they crossed the street. 

When learning takes place, the human race survives.

Most older learners do research before they show up at the flight school. Some of it’s accurate, some isn’t, and that can lead to some wild expectations, like the learner who thought he would solo in a weekend and then take a flight school airplane by himself to visit relatives three states away. 

It is very important to manage these expectations. Make sure to use a syllabus so the learners know what they are going to learn and the order it will be applied. Explain your role and—here is the key part—what they are expected to do. For example, there will be assigned reading and study. Identify the objective of each lesson and how it will be achieved. Emphasize the need to be flexible when faced with poor weather or equipment malfunctions, and always have a “Plan B.”

You will likely find that the older learners are more inclined to study than the younger ones because they have a lifetime of experience and understand that if they prepare for a lesson they will get more out of it. The downside of this is that the knowledge portion of learning to fly can be daunting. There’s a great deal of memorization, and it can be overwhelming at first. This can be very threatening to someone who’s successful in their chosen career.

Pro-tip: Introduce the knowledge portion of the training couched in the levels of learning: rote, understanding, correlation, and application. Assure them that everyone begins at the rote level and the real learning takes place from there. Quizzes and tests given in ground school are designed there to find the soft spots in the learner’s knowledge. A good CFI will take these soft spots and fine-tune lessons so that learning takes place.

Consistency is key. For best results, craft a training plan that allows a flight at least twice a week.  Make sure you identify the objective of each flight along with completion standards.

As we age, sometimes it can be a challenge to learn and retain new skills. Repetition is critical here. Some people say it’s the “old dog, new tricks” mindset, while others suggest it’s because you have so much information in your head already that it can be a challenge to add more. Learning takes as long as it takes, and both the learner and the CFI must be patient.

Older learners who are accomplished in their professional life sometimes expect that level of accomplishment to translate to flying skill. If that doesn’t happen, they can get frustrated. This is when you should remind them that all skills, from a golf swing, to pancake flipping, to landing an airplane have a learning curve. 

Most instructors will eventually encounter a learner who, despite having a logbook filled with hours, doesn’t not have the ability to stay ahead of the airplane. They may have picked up bad information from a previous instructor ( i.e. “My other instructor told me not to touch the rudder pedals.”) or, worse yet, their performance may be erratic. Some days they fly well, other days, not so much. They may become task saturated quickly. Have a gentle but firm conversation with the learner, letting them know your concerns and if needed, suggest a change in instructor because it’s not working with you.

Sometimes, dreams of obtaining a private pilot certificate are out of reach for health reasons. Chronic conditions such as diabetes or a medication they are on precludes them from a medical certificate. Be upfront with these clients—explain the medical requirements for the certificate they seek before they have put a lot of money into flying. Recognize that sport pilot or glider flying may be an option, or if they truly just want to get in the air, they can hire you to act as their safety pilot. For some folks who truly love flying, that’s all they need.

It is extremely rewarding to watch an older learner succeed. One of the high points of my CFI career came on February 21, 2019, when Jack, who was in his 70s, earned his private pilot certificate.

Jack started his flight training in 1982. He was a career Navy man. He worked as an air intercept controller, later as an air intercept controller supervisor, and finally Top Gun. Basically, he was ATC to the pilots operating off the carriers. Jack’s job was to teach folks how to control aircraft, and although he enjoyed it, he knew he wanted to be in the cockpit. Jack retired from the Navy in 1986—he quit flying in part because he met Barbara, whom he called “Babe.” She was the love of his life. They married and Jack took a job as a corrections officer. They were together until 2013 when cancer took her from him.

Jack returned to aviation in October 2015—flying helped fill the void created by the loss of Babe.

I met Jack in the winter of 2016. He was an airport bum, hanging around at the FBO and trying to finish his private pilot certificate. CFI turnover was a big problem. He would get in a groove, flying several times a week, then his CFI would leave for the airlines or another flying job. He would have to start all over again with a new CFI. Sometimes, the CFIs were a good fit and he learned a lot. Other times, not so much. He often got frustrated and would get in his own way. 

At first, Jack was not a big fan of mine. Although I only came up to his shoulder, he found me intimidating. (Full disclosure: when you wear a leather jacket and have a reputation for edged weaponry it can be off-putting—my learners describe me as a mix of Obi-wan Kenobi, Captain Janeway and Xena: Warrior Princess.) Then one day I helped him with a weather briefing. That led to answering some questions about cross-country flight planning. I showed him how to make a divert-ready sectional ruler by carving notches into a pen at 10-nautical-mile increments. A grudging respect developed, and I became his instructor.

I admired his tenacity. His attention to detail. When he did something well, I let him know it. When he did something poorly, I made sure learning took place. To help him remember things we came up with mnemonic devices that he could relate to—such as Fat Magenta, the Easy who cost $700 (Class Echo Airspace as depicted by a fat magenta line begins at 700 feet AGL). When he got frustrated or down on himself I would ask in my authoritative instructor just-this-side-of-mom voice: 

“Do I need to come over there?” 

“NO, MA’AM!” 

In 2018, Jack bought a Cessna Skyhawk. He finished his training in the Skyhawk that he christened “Babe,” after his late wife. He has a photograph of her mounted on the panel.

On February 21, 2019, Jack took his checkride and, in his words, “at the ripe old age of 75 years, one month, and one day old” earned his private pilot certificate. He had a total of 285.7 hours logged when he went for the ride. Today, he has 367 hours total time—and that number continues to grow.