Mentoring sucess story

Paul Allen

Paul Allen

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Feb 24, 2005
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467
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Palm Harbor Fl
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Paul
Four years ago my wife and I gave our son an introdutory flight for his 15th birthday. He took several more lessons and then school started, sports, girls etc. and that was the end of flying. I watched him take the intro flight and thought I should try it. That was it for me, I couldn't stop and six months later I had my PPL. Half way to the PPL I bought a 172. A year later I started my instrument training and again six months later I had the instrument rating. Then of course the 172 was to slow so I bought a 201. Late last summer my son decides it's time to get back in the left seat. I signed us up to the AOPA mentoring program to help get him more involved. Saturday (his 19th birthday) his checkride was scheduled, but we had 200 foot ceilings. Well today four years after he started he passed the checkride. Dad, when do I start flying the Mooney? If we didn't give him the intro flight I might not have tried it myself and I might still have some money. Oh well it certainly has been worth it, I've done things these past four years I would have never thought possible.
 
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Well paul i'm glad you followed up on it,And tell your son CONGRATS,. And welcome to the club.
Dave G
 
Paul Allen said:
Dad, when do I start flying the Mooney?
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Heh, well there's a new twist on the teenager borrowing the keys! :eek:

Congrats to you and your son. I'll be looking for you both in the pages of AOPA Pilot magazine in the mentoring success section.


-Rich
 
Good story. You'll always have something to relate to...
 
Great Story, Paul. I have failed with both my daughters- one 18, one 16. Sigh.
 
Wish my parents had the money when I was that age. Instead the roles are reversed. I'm selling my dad to my plane, and giving him the flight instruction.
 
Great story! Quite interesting how things can turn out! :yes:
 
bbchien said:
Great Story, Paul. I have failed with both my daughters- one 18, one 16. Sigh.
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My 17 year old daughter does not want anything to do with flying unless I'm flying her down to Myrtle Beach. Go figure.
 
N2212R said:
Wish my parents had the money when I was that age. Instead the roles are reversed. I'm selling my dad to my plane, and giving him the flight instruction.
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I keep telling my son when he's out of college and starts making money he needs to buy a new Mooney for me to fly. With his money and not mine.
 
jangell said:
Good story. You'll always have something to relate to...
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We love to go out on nice cool weekend mornings and just fly to anywhere. We have some very good conversations.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I was a very proud dad yesterday. Raising children, especialy teenagers is not always fun. I was exhausted last night from pacing in my office all afternoon. Thank god it went down in the 50's last night, I slept like a dead person.
 
rpadula said:
Heh, well there's a new twist on the teenager borrowing the keys! :eek:

Congrats to you and your son. I'll be looking for you both in the pages of AOPA Pilot magazine in the mentoring success section.


-Rich
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Man. that's going to make me nervous for awhile.
 
Our son has no interest in flying. He won't even take the controls. Its just another way to get somewhere. Glad to hear your experience has been different.
 
Anthony said:
Our son has no interest in flying. He won't even take the controls. Its just another way to get somewhere. Glad to hear your experience has been different.
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I really really hope my 4 year old daughter will want to go flying with by herself, and hope she doesn't pick up on her mother's fear of flying. So far she likes it.

OK, thread hijack: What age is it good to go flying solo with a toddler. She'd be in her FAA approved car seat, and I'd rack the seat back all the way so she couldn't play with the controls.

Is 4 too young?
 
Bill Jennings said:
I really really hope my 4 year old daughter will want to go flying with by herself, and hope she doesn't pick up on her mother's fear of flying. So far she likes it.

OK, thread hijack: What age is it good to go flying solo with a toddler. She'd be in her FAA approved car seat, and I'd rack the seat back all the way so she couldn't play with the controls.

Is 4 too young?
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4 is too young to really care about being in the front or the back. Stick the toddler in the back with an adult to keep an eye on him/her. Good to go. Otherwise I wouldn't really hesitate to stick a kid in the front with me either...But I'm not very easily distracted when it comes to flying.
 
jangell said:
Stick the toddler in the back with an adult to keep an eye on him/her. Good to go.
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Looking for some one on one time without somewhat scared (ok, petrified) Mom along. Eye contact is also good, thus the question on front seat.
 
bbchien said:
Great Story, Paul. I have failed with both my daughters- one 18, one 16. Sigh.
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Bruce,

You may have failed to get them to want to fly, so far, but I highly doubt you have truly "failed with both your daughters." :no:

I've thought that for kids whose parents fly, flying wouldn't seem nearly as special as it is for those of us who didn't grow up with it. I'd think it'd be fairly difficult for kids who did grow up with it to understand how special it really is.
 
Bill Jennings said:
OK, thread hijack: What age is it good to go flying solo with a toddler. She'd be in her FAA approved car seat, and I'd rack the seat back all the way so she couldn't play with the controls.

Is 4 too young?
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In my non-parent opinion, 4 is OK if she understands and will comply with instructions, like "don't touch this."

Jesse: It's not necessarily about distractions... I remember one story from the old AOPA board about a kid who was strapped into the front seat and when dad went to rotate on takeoff, kid saw the yoke move and "pulled it back with all of his not-insubstantial might, over-rotating into a soft-field takeoff." As I recall, the kid managed several other potentially dangerous stunts before dad made it back on the ground and decided to wait a couple more years before the next ride.

I forget who that was... Anyone here?
 
Based on my experience and time that I have spent with my four year old nephew. I cannot see any situation to where I could not easily fully restrain his ability to touch anything with my right hand. I can easily fly with just one hand.

Really I think the most obvious way to avoid this would be to have their seat back so far that they would not have the ability to reach or touch anything.

flyingcheesehead said:
I've thought that for kids whose parents fly, flying wouldn't seem nearly as special as it is for those of us who didn't grow up with it. I'd think it'd be fairly difficult for kids who did grow up with it to understand how special it really is.
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I've heard of this quite a bit and I think it really depends on the situation. I can see to where if the parent simply did it for fun and the kid grew up with that being normal to where it would not interest them. Why would your typical teenager want to be interested in something that their parents did?!

I think I never really went through this for two reasons. The first being that it just seemed like this is what you did in life. You flew. That's what I saw growing up and that's what I thought my role was. Later in life it became obvious that it was no longer an option for me to follow the family steps. The fact that I couldn't/didn't have aviation anymore simply made me want to fly more. The more I was pulled away from aviation the harder I wanted it. When I was younger it was me saving up every penny I had to buy the latest edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator or the new cool joystick. As I got older and started to increase my income it became me saving every penny for that next flight lesson. Right now It's me saving every penny and trying to increase my income with the dream of owning an airplane in the not too distant future.
 
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Troy Whistman said:
Hey, Ed, you getting a good price for your father? I'm looking for a buyer for mine.
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I was wondering the same thing. Are Dad's about the same price as old Cherokees?
 
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