Some limits are made to be exceeded 

“There’s a fence around you I can’t get over it’s so high. There’s a fence around you I can’t get round it it’s so wide.”

So goes the chorus of “Fence,” a song frequently performed live by The Broken Hearts, circa 1985. While each listener can determine for themselves what the song means from their perspective, to the author it was about self-imposed limits. Those limits are often meant to protect us from harm, yet the unintended consequence of an excessively defensive position often backfires and prevents us from living a fuller, more satisfying life.  

I know this because I was in that band, I wrote the song, and I still believe that some limits are made to be exceeded, lest we wither away into lonely, isolated drones with nothing more exciting in our lives than the drive to and from work each day. 

This concept preys on my mind lately, as it does from time to time, with aeronautical overtones.  

I often encounter well-intentioned adults with questions about getting involved in aviation. The crux of the issue is usually something along the lines of, “How old does my son/daughter/niece/nephew/neighbor’s kid have to be to begin flight training?”

The answer, of course, is whenever they want. But that’s not what the speaker is asking. What they really want to know is: How old does this young person need to be to earn a pilot certificate? Which to my mind is a very different thing than beginning flight training.  

Flying is a skill. A skill that can be taught, and learned, and mastered…to a degree.

But unlike other skills, like hammering a nail into a board, or speaking Dutch like a native, aviation is a multifaceted pursuit that is in a constant state of flux. It’s not just the regulatory changes we need to be up to speed on, it’s the physics of how aircraft fly, how weather and atmosphere affect the aircraft and its crew, with periodic forays into new building techniques using new building materials, and of course the seemingly never-ending, always expanding list of acronyms and abbreviations that pilots need to be familiar with.  

Don’t even get me started on how to use the radio properly. If I hear one more person call in, “White Cessna on downwind,” or “can I get an airport advisory,” or “final call,” I may start seriously start thinking of mounting guns on my airplane.  

Truthfully, anyone can start flight training at any age. Sure, we can’t solo a powered airplane until our 16^th birthday or be issued a pilot certificate until a year later, but we can begin training anytime.  

There is no rule, anywhere, that prevents a 10-year-old from going down to the airport to watch airplanes taxi around the grounds, takeoff, and land. Not a single librarian has been instructed to slap the aviation manuals out of the hands of a teenager who hasn’t yet achieved the magical age of 16. The FAA does not include a firewall to keep youngsters out of its voluminous list of PDFs intended to be read, understood, and adhered to by pilots.  

Start with the Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. You can thank me later.  

If your kid, neighbor, cousin, or casual acquaintance wants to start learning to fly, let them. Encourage them. Whether they get parental consent to get airborne with a volunteer pilot or CFI (and minors should always have parental consent to go flying — it’s just good manners) or if they simply start reading about flying, talking to pilots about their experiences and soaking up their insights — just start. There is no lower limit on the age required to start being curious or getting excited about the idea of becoming a pilot.  

On the other end of the spectrum, I recently had an interaction with a gentleman who bemoaned (politely) how disappointed he was to have waited too long to become a pilot. At 62, he believed the opportunity had passed him by. Not long before that exchange I read a message from a fellow who was nearly a decade younger who had the same misconception.  

When are you too old to learn to fly? The FAA hasn’t established a maximum age limit. Nor do I believe they ever will. If you can locomote to the aircraft, get in, manage the controls, and keep breathing throughout the process, you’re probably a reasonable candidate for becoming a pilot.  

It is a sad but real truth that so many of us have a tendency to put limits on ourselves, believing it’s appropriate or required.

So, let’s dispel some. Can you fly? Probably. Can you fly professionally? There’s a good chance you can, yes. Are you too young to get started? Of course not. Are you too old? Maybe, but it’s unlikely.  

I once flew from Meriden, Connecticut, to Westerly, Rhode Island, then down to New Haven, up to Hartford, and back to Meriden without touching the controls. An 8-year-old had the airplane the whole time and did just fine. I was just there for the takeoff, the landing, and to keep things legal.  

My oldest student was 77 years old, a World War II pilot candidate who washed out due to an injury, but he never lost the desire to fly, and fly he did. While he never earned his pilot certificate, he went home from every flight confident and content at the realization that he was finally, truly, a pilot. The student pilot certificate in his pocket proved it.  

Regardless of whether you’re young or old, comfortably well off or impoverished, tall or short, slim or husky, get out there and unshackle yourself from the self-limiting bonds you’ve tied yourself down with. There is a big world waiting for you to come live your best life. So do it. It’s time. 

And should you find to your surprise that you have a copy of The Broken Hearts’ one and only album in your collection — be kind. It was the 80s. I had a lot of hair back then. But (and few fans knew this) I was a flight student at MacArthur in Islip, New York, during those heady days. If there was ever someone who could have reasonably believed they weren’t cut out for aviation, it very likely should have been me. Fortunately, I’ve never cared much for limits of that variety.  

I hope you don’t either.