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One of France’s youngest pilots |
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Wednesday, 16 April 2008 |
In Soulac, Gillian Broome meets a boy who can’t yet drive but sure can fly
In December, 15-year-old Solomon Cox took his first solo flight. He performed a ‘circuit and bumps’, touching down and taking off again and a 30km circuit round the airfield. Asked how it went he gave a laid-back, “Fine, just fine”. But halfway home he asked his mother to stop the car because he felt sick; he admitted his legs were shaking.
Solomon was one when his parents moved to France. At his collège, George Mandel at Soulac-sur-Mer, he and eight others took a flying course. He was then 13. The course is mainly theory, with two flights sitting alongside an instructor. At 15, when the nine took their Brevet de l’Initiation Aéronautique, they were the only youngsters in a roomful of adults.
Up until this point, the lessons were part of a school course; now came the choice to continue, with his parents paying. Because Solomon wants to be a pilot, he’s continuing. He goes every two weeks for further technical training and for actual flying, with his instructor alongside. His first training flight was in September 2006 and he was ready for his first solo a year later. Every hour in the air has to be logged because to gain his licence he has to have flown a certain number of hours. During the next year he has to pass four further exams and, in the year after that, clock up the required flying hours with his instructor communicating from the ground. His instructor believes he will have his private pilot’s licence by the time he is 17. He’ll be licensed to fly and carry a passenger, but still too young to drive a car!
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