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What Is the Best Way to Get Kids Interested in Aviation?

Here are some sure-fire ways to inspire the love of flight in children before they're ready for ground school.

Models from Bergstrom Aviation, Inc. in Pasco Washington. [Credit: Meg Godlewski]
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Introduce teens to model aircraft building or flying radio-controlled (RC) planes, which provides a form of flying experience and has historically inspired many pilots.
  • For older teens with increased focus, consider introducing them to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones), as they teach essential aviation concepts like airspace and regulations and can lead to marketable skills.
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Question: Is there a best practice for getting a kid interested in aviation without enrolling them in ground school or flight training? My teens love airshows, but I don’t think they have the focus to be pilots just yet.

Answer: Have you tried introducing them to model aircraft building or flying radio-controlled aircraft? With the latter, they can get a form of flying experience. The Academy of Model Aeronautics has chapters all over the world, and it offers information about the options for flying scale radio-controlled models.

Or you can start out by building scale kits. Many pilots began their “careers” model building and model flying. In fact in the early days of FLYING, there was a center spread of plans for model aircraft—the mass-produced plastic and balsa kits were still years away. 

Meg Godlewski

Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.

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