huv wrote:
Whether that age is 60 or 65 is of course individual, but above 60 we do discourage people from starting.
Why? Now that they have time and money to fulfill a lifelong dream?
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Why?
Try to teach a 60 year old who have showed no interest in cars whatsoever earlier in life to drive a car with manual transmission. He/she have to park correctly and so on. It certainly is doable, but it requires patience. Lots and lots and lots of patience. Not only from the instructor, but also from the student. Most from the student in fact, and this translates to motivation. Where does the motivation that didn’t exist earlier in life come from?
Maybe they lived in a crowded city where a car was more of a hindrance that a help.
Maybe they rode motorcycles, bicycles or scooters.
Perhaps like many in France because of conscription, they drove tanks, armoured cars or lorries. Never bothered to learn to drive a car.
LeSving wrote:
It certainly is doable, but it requires patience. Lots and lots and lots of patience. Not only from the instructor, but also from the student. Most from the student in fact, and this translates to motivation. Where does the motivation that didn’t exist earlier in life come from?
I think this is insightful. It seems to me one problem with learning new skills when you’re older is that you may be accustomed to being good at what you do, and your social role may have been to lead. You then need to have the patience to be unskilled and follow instruction. Not always so easy and I think for some people this may be at least as important as age related learning issues, if they exist. I can imagine the instructor’s approach might also be quite important, higher social intelligence being an asset.
The motivation to do what’s required may be having newly available free time and enough money, as per Peter’s post.
But as long as you can make progress and are moving along as some reasonable pace, why not?
LeSving wrote:
Where does the motivation that didn’t exist earlier in life come from?
That may well be the operative question. If it’s a “whim” then it doesn’t matter what age, those people drop out at the first sign of trouble. Others, as I said, the motivation may well lay in the very fact that for the first time in their lifes they actually have time and the funds to do it.
LeSving wrote:
Try to teach a 60 year old who have showed no interest in cars whatsoever earlier in life to drive a car with manual transmission.
Again, the question is motivation. Possibly they have lived in a city or another place where they did not want or need a car and have now moved to the countryside where driving is a huge booster of quality of life. And then, while I don’t see what is more difficult in manual to automatic, if they want the “easy” way, why not go automatic? In today’s day and age, with electric cars on the march, it’s perfectly fine to learn on automatic transmission.
I know several who learnt in that phase of their lifes, PPL normally, some after extensive flightsimming activities before. And while the hour requirements have generally gone up, they may also take things at a more leasurely pace (again, because they have time and can afford it) . Quite a few come back after a long hiatus, others simply like something new to do in their retirement. Heck there are even retirees who do their university degree for the same reasons.
Rather than sending such people away, who would quite possibly be hurt and frustrated by this decision, I’d offer them to take a couple of trial lessons to check out their aptitude and motivation, then tell them to do their medical (yes I know they only need it at the end of the training, but what if something is there? And then have them do the theoretical exams. If they are still around after those, just let them do what they want to do. For a PPL possibly with BIR once it comes out and individuals with a certain level of aptitude and background, I think it is perfectly feasible.
Peter wrote:
so wearing socks with sandals is ok
Are you supposed to not have socks with sandals in the UK!? Mad dogs and Englishmen… 
After gliding at 17, I got a PPL in a taildragger in the minimum (then) 30 hours.
Sharing a tailwheel aircraft with a newly qualified 50+ PPL, he never got confident and sold his share, getting a nosewheel share.
He is an ex-police driver. We frequently shared a car for 30 miles to the airfield.
He drives faster than me, overtaking decisions are quicker, but I feel safe with him.
I reacted fast to get his pilot-induced-oscillations under control. His road reactions were fast, his runway reactions slow.
When I started driving in 1960, most older drivers were new to driving – many had learned during the war, but hadn’t driven until the Mini/Ford cheap cars appeared in the late 50s. Very different from today.
Now, at 80, I’ve been driving for 61 years, and most of us old drivers learned by our early twenties.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Are you supposed to not have socks with sandals in the UK!?
Not only in the UK. Also in Switzerland this is sneered at by a large part of the population and I guess elsewhere too. I’ve seen tourists being laughed at in Greece and Bulgaria as well…. mostly Germans and Swiss.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Are you supposed to not have socks with sandals in the UK!? Mad dogs and Englishmen…
At least once every summer I send a picture to my 3 year younger brother where I’m wearing black socks and sandals According to him (and most others), socks and sandals is a big NO NO. If you still want to wear socks (you are very old or completely out of sync), at least wear white socks. Definitely not a UK specific thing. 🩴
On the ‘60+’ subject.
I am past 60 and in the last three years have done:
- Instrument Rating
- CPL
- Multi engine Commercial Instrument rating
Just sayin’ 
