Average age of pilots on the forum
- Thread starter AVLJMA
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Bob Dempsey
Active Member
I’m 71 - I saw a need for us older drone pilots to communicate and I started the Facebook group “Old Farts with Drones” we started in May of 2021 and now have over 5000 members. There is a lot of us Old Farts flying drones!
TS_Thomas02
Well-Known Member
59. Not ready to retire yet. I have type ratings and certificates for manned flying but not the part 107 yet. This is recreational for me and getting smooth panning video of kids and grand kids is a wonderful reward for me. Getting shots of my kids helping others learn to ride new bikes today was awesome.
JohnnyChicago
Member
SteveMouzon
Well-Known Member
I'll be 62 on Tuesday, but still in business and hope to be doing things I love until I die, which hopefully is deep into the future.
bill1950
Well-Known Member
71 now and in February 72. Don’t move as fast as I did years ago, not as easy to get from kneeling to standing, Bending over not as easy as it once was, things hurt. All that being said, when I am up in the air I move like a kid, it is freedom for us Ancient of Days. Love hand launch and landing. Encouraging to hear from some that 10 plus more years then me. Age is just a number!
Not exactly breaking news, but hobbies that usually cost $2k or more are mostly older people. They have most of the money and typically fewer obligations (kids, mortgages, education debt and tuition.) Rarely have I seen anyone that appears under the age of 50 with a high end hobbyist drone. The distribution of wealth (and career opportunities that would lead to wealth) has really changed over the last 20 years or so.
Charting The Growing Generational Wealth Gap
How large is the wealth gap between Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers? We visualize the growing wealth disparity by generation and age.
www.visualcapitalist.com
JeffEKnighton
Member
Hahaha. I'm also drone obsessed. Just started this past June and I'm 58. My wife thinks I love my drone more than her. The Mini 2 is awfully cute when it powers up and the camera moves all around.
I am 73.5 and enjoy flying my Mavic 2 and Mavic Air if the temperature is above 10 C. Haha
Merry Xmas
Hi I just joined from Winnipeg, we must be known since someone from NASA mentioned its a town colder than Mars. I hope I'm not alone here, so far haven't heard anyone mention age in the 80's and I happen to be coming close to 86. Please don't mention it cause I don't want my pilots licence taken away.
Remote Pilots Australia
Well-Known Member
Great spread of replies covering many ages and situations. I enjoyed the read.
I’m 57 next month. Started R/C flying at 27 and explored all the usual paths most of us do within the hobby ending up with certification for fixed wing, rotary and rocketry and then instructing.
Family first bought me a drone in 2017 (P4P). I went and obtained a Remote Pilots Certification in 2018 (More or less an Australian equivalent to part 107, a little more involved, way more expensive and valid for life). I’ve spent the time since training and getting extra certificate qualifications in autonomous flight, image and data acquisition and mapping by drone mostly simply because it interested me.
This last year things just took on a life of their own drone wise with a large geotechnical firm reaching out and bringing me onboard and I’ve spent the last six months immersed in flying and automating mapping and survey missions in quite difficult mountain terrain and I’m loving it for the challenge and opportunity to keep my mind and skillset sharp.
At the same time I’ve been up certifying adding heavy lift, night operations and other endorsements. I’m currently working on the last piece of the puzzle which is a full aircraft instrument rating that is required here for beyond visual line of site operations. Last week the company I work for splashed out AU$50000 on a Matrice 300 and multi camera rig for me to fly on their operations and have told me next year will bring more flying than I can manage. I *never* saw any of this coming. Drones were just going to be an interest suitable for a man of my age that might with luck earn a little pocket change.
I know a lot of you folk being quite a bit older than me are going to laugh at this but, at the beginning of 2021 I was thinking “well you’re going on 60 now, it’s all a slow wind down from here on in heading towards the inevitable” …. Well I sure got that wrong didn’t I?
The way things are looking I’ve got at least another decade flying in the commercial field before I even think about kicking back and flying for fun during retirement and the fact that there are so many senior pilots out there still going hard and strong just gives me more confidence going forwards.
I think like a lot of us here I am finding the knowledge that flying drones is one of those activities that you can still engage in when older and do it on a par with your abilities when younger despite the inevitable health battles age can bring is greatly reassuring.
“Old drone pilots never die, they just return to home”
Regards
Ari
I’m 57 next month. Started R/C flying at 27 and explored all the usual paths most of us do within the hobby ending up with certification for fixed wing, rotary and rocketry and then instructing.
Family first bought me a drone in 2017 (P4P). I went and obtained a Remote Pilots Certification in 2018 (More or less an Australian equivalent to part 107, a little more involved, way more expensive and valid for life). I’ve spent the time since training and getting extra certificate qualifications in autonomous flight, image and data acquisition and mapping by drone mostly simply because it interested me.
This last year things just took on a life of their own drone wise with a large geotechnical firm reaching out and bringing me onboard and I’ve spent the last six months immersed in flying and automating mapping and survey missions in quite difficult mountain terrain and I’m loving it for the challenge and opportunity to keep my mind and skillset sharp.
At the same time I’ve been up certifying adding heavy lift, night operations and other endorsements. I’m currently working on the last piece of the puzzle which is a full aircraft instrument rating that is required here for beyond visual line of site operations. Last week the company I work for splashed out AU$50000 on a Matrice 300 and multi camera rig for me to fly on their operations and have told me next year will bring more flying than I can manage. I *never* saw any of this coming. Drones were just going to be an interest suitable for a man of my age that might with luck earn a little pocket change.
I know a lot of you folk being quite a bit older than me are going to laugh at this but, at the beginning of 2021 I was thinking “well you’re going on 60 now, it’s all a slow wind down from here on in heading towards the inevitable” …. Well I sure got that wrong didn’t I?
The way things are looking I’ve got at least another decade flying in the commercial field before I even think about kicking back and flying for fun during retirement and the fact that there are so many senior pilots out there still going hard and strong just gives me more confidence going forwards.
I think like a lot of us here I am finding the knowledge that flying drones is one of those activities that you can still engage in when older and do it on a par with your abilities when younger despite the inevitable health battles age can bring is greatly reassuring.
“Old drone pilots never die, they just return to home”
Regards
Ari
I’m 80 in two months! Absolutely love to fly. However, I may be skewing up the average being so old!!!
Kentucky Ranger
Well-Known Member
TheParaPilot
Active Member
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