My son and I are about to get into RC flying. We purchased the EasyStar Electric from Multiplex and the hobby store owner said at age 9, he's ready to start flying. I'm wondering if any of you have another perspective on the proper age to start RC flying.

I know a lot of that depends upon the individual but I'm basically looking for some guidelines.

Thanks

Welcome to RCU. He should do O.K. at 9yrs old. Start out with the safety items first, practice with him till working around props, arming, proper radio etiquette , ect are second nature to you both.
Also hook up with an instructor, he will be able to coach you along and know what areas you`ll neeed to work on.

My granddaughter will be 3 years old in 2 weeks and she flies my simulator better than I do! hahaha

But, she'll see the cat at the corner of her eye and will drop the radio and go chase it...

Some have a longer attention span then others, and some have better dexterity too. There's a 12 year old at the club I used to belong to who flies the large warbirds and does so very well.

So it all depends on the child.

The advice from Insanemoondoggie is the best to follow IMO.

Thanks for the replies. We are joining a local club and will work with an instructor. I had a brief introduction to RC in my younger years and I do have one safe landing to my credit (if nestled in a treetop counts!).

We have a 7 year old at our club that has a plane that is about twice as big as he is.. powered with an OS 90 two stroke. The kid is a pretty good flyer, too. He sometimes scares me because he flys so close to the ground, but he has not yet had a problem. He flys with his grand-dad. Neat to watch.

I recently (3 years now) acquired a 5yr old son (from my fiances previous marriage) and he loves anything that has to do with cars, trucks, trains, airplanes, helicopters and video games. I call him my son, since I am pretty much the only father figure he has ever known. We have over 250,000 video games in our house, so his hand/eye coordination is very advanced compared to other kids his age.

I took him to a local flying on our way back from 6 Flags and he fell in love with it. Since then I have purchased Realflight G3, and started building a new aircraft. He has watched intently every step of our new aircraft go from a bunch of wood to a newly covered machine. He is always flying the sim on the computer and he knows how to put in my passcode to unlock my computer, launch the G3 application (I don't use desktop icons), pick his favorite airport, change aircraft and actually fly. He seems to have more of a fascination with Helicopters then he does airplanes, but he enjoys airplanes as well. On the sim He can take off and fly airplanes, but I have never seen him actually land on the runway. With helicopters he can idle, take off, hover, fly and land. So, naturally... I too was wondering at what age people suggest getting kids into the hobby... He's got the hand/eye coordination for it, but I would imagine there might be legal (AMA) implications about it...

My son is 5. He's been playing around with the simulator on and off for a year and a half. He likes to crash intentionally and watch the plane explode, but he can also keep the plane up in the air as long as he wants. So I'm building his first plane this summer.

haha, my son is the same way... he likes to see the damage and carnage more then the beauty of flight. But he sits in amazement at the flying field watching others fly. Last evening he was flying, more like driving, since he was driving the plane into obstacles trying to break only the wings off the plane. Once he got the wings off and the engine still running he then proceeded to run the wingless aircraft from one end of the runway to the other just laughing his head off. It cracked him up the most when he tried to pull up and the plane just continued driving on the 2 rear wheels.

Never a dull moment with kids around...

my daughter solo'd at 9 yrs old, was even featured in model aviation magazine in the district 4 report

Depends dramatically with the kid. I've seen kids as young as 5 fly well. I've personally taught a 9-yr old who was fine, and a 12-yr old who was just too young.

To fly safely, the kid needs focus, attention span, and an ability to follow instructions. A respect for what "dangerous" means is also a very good thing.

There are also those who just might never learn. At my field there is a guy who is around 50 and after 4 years still hasnt soloed. He has crashed at least 3 planes. Im 16 and I soloed after a month. My point is it really depends on the person. So at age 9, he could be ready, or not.

All depends how responsible the child is. Show them pictures on how dangerous a prop can be. Not to get off the subject, but my dad taught me to be responsible in gun ownership. I haven't shot myself, nor have I shot others. I learned way early in life that a gun is not a toy... but a deadly weapon. I seen pictures of suicides, gun murders and what gun accidents can do... my dad was in Law Enforcement. Those pictures never left my head. And it taught me safety first, and to pay attention.

As soon as I did anything that was stupid... he not only took my guns away, but he punished me on top of it and explained why he did it.

People can die or get very hurt if they are careless with our Glow/Gas planes. Even electric planes can be dangerous... I remember someone posted a picture of what a plane did to him when he had a faulty speed controller. Or was it he bumped the radio while it was on? I forgot.

Anyway, just my perspective in the matter... hope I helped.

Luftwaffe Oberst
Radio Aero Modelers Club
AMA District II
Pulaski, NY

Some kids have a natural ability, some take patience and some take forever.

My 10 year old has his own trainer. After 20+ flights, he can fly for several minutes without having to be saved. At first it was closer to 5 seconds. My 12 year old daughter picked up circular flight fairly fast after a few minutes on the sim at the LHS. She flew for 5-10 minutes on her first flight without having to be saved.

At our field we usually have 2 people work with kids. One to watch plane one to instruct child. Works great.

Del

I've been trying to get my 6 year old daughter interested. She says she is, but I don't see it much in her actions. I finally asked her the other day if she wanted to learn, or only expressed interest because she knew I wanted her to be interested. She said she really was interested, but maybe we should wait a couple more years. I personally think that was a very adult evalutaion of the situation from her and I'm extremely proud!!

(As for guns, I plan on making her take an intro to firearms class. She doesn't have to have another thing to do with them her whole life, but I want her to know how to handle them in case her and/or her friends happen across one. At the minimum I want her to know how to clear it and put the safety on, or to leave the area if her friends won't let her do that!)

--
Tom

One thing that can go wrong from your point of view is that the 9 year old may well
learn faster
solo first
and be prop hanging his scale Mustang in the middle of the landing approach when you are working up to your first landing

At this point you give on flying and become a full time builder, repairer, mechanic for the wonderkid.

I know what you're saying. Last night, he just started working with a new simulator I downloaded for him (FMS). After about 15 minutes he had reprogrammed the keyboard to something that was easier for him. I went to show him something and I couldn't find the throttle!!

Also, another poster was right too. He found it interesting to try and crash into the trees!!

Oh well!

Our club has "Learn to fly" days... our instructors allow anyone 8 and up to come and fly our club trainers on a trainer cord (after some instruction and sim time). The 8 year old limit works pretty well, although we have some that are pretty wild!