Originally Posted by
Bill Greenwood
From an article in March 2006 issue of the IAC mag SPORT AEROBATICS: a lady acro pilot is asked to take kids for a flight, inlcuding some acro. So how young is old enough for this to be safe? obviously you are going to try to fly extra safe, good weather. plenty of altitude extra and gentle manuevers, but still this is an acro ride,and although rare could have an emergency calling for a bailout.
I don't want to get into a heated debate about this, but really pass on these details.
Diana Richard has 2 10 year old niece and nephew who are avid about flying and see her fly often, the little girl even wrote a poem about it.
So they did emergency exit practice with the kids, and guess what the kids eventually could get belt off, out of the backseat and out the door and pull the ripcord , (ALL SIMULATE) faster than the adults. Big folks took longer to get out, the Dad was 14sec longest and 8 sec after practice, the Mom's best was 6 sec. The kids longest was 10 sec and they got it down to 4sec. which was a sec faster than the lady acro pilot.
This was SIMULATED, with the pilot pulling the pins and jettisoning the Decathlon door and then telling the kids to jump from the back seat.
These were very bright and focused 10 year olds, but it looks like around 12 is a good basic age to have some confidence that the kid can do it if necessary in a real situation. The kids were even handicapped by having adult sized chute which you would not use in a real flight, and still they were quick to move. Make us feel old.