Expert: D. Norkus - 3/17/2007

Question
"How old can you be to start becoming a pilot? What age or classes
required do you need to get your pilots Licenses? How much time does it
take to get your career for Commercial pilot? How can you start learning
how to drive a Air plane or getting the understand and feeling of one?"

Answer
Julia

You can start training at a very young age if your parents support it financially (and otherwise). There have been several very young pilots (age 10 and younger) who have made the news in the past several years. However, this is certainly not the norm- especially if your family doesn't own a plane or there isn't a flight instructor in the family/friend of the family. Under age 16, an instructor MUST be with the student at all times as a pilot must be at least that age to solo (fly alone). Aircraft rental plus instructor fees can easily run $100-150 per hour, so as you can see this is not a cheap hobby.

It is best to start at age 16 or closer to age 17 as your 17th birthday is the soonest you could get your pilot certificate. Doing your training in the most condensed amount of time (like 3 months) will get your training done for the least amount of money, probably under $6,000.

As far as the time it takes for Private and commercial training, that varies by the individual. In some cases it can be as little as 1.5 years or several. You need to take a written, oral and flight exam with each pilot certificate or rating. Your instructor will help you out with all you need to know once you being training. The cost alkso varies depending on your methid of training. It can be as little as $40,000 for a career pilot course to over $100,000 to do a 4 year degree plus flight training at a big name university.

As far as getting the "feel" of an aircraft, go to any local airport and pay for a demo flight (less than $100). Find a flight school at http://www.beapilot.com and make a reservation.

Please visit the website I created to help address the common questions of aspiring pilots. It will address much of what you need to know. Get back to me if you have any more questions about this:

http://www.geocities.com/av8trxx99/FAQ.html

Since you are a female, you might also find these women pilot organizations of interest:

http://www.ninety-nines.org
http://www.wai.org

Hope this helps.
Dottie