5 Easiest Airplanes to Learn To Fly In

If becoming a pilot is your dream, take a look at these 5 easiest airplanes to learn to fly in.

Flying a plane is one of the most common childhood dreams around the world. Ever since the Wright brothers proved that it is possible to fly in a machine that was heavier than air, imagination of both boys and girls (and plenty of adults as well) has been captured by airplanes. Aviation pioneers like Charles Lindberg and Amelia Earhart became national heroes.

After WW2 airplanes became cheap enough that they weren’t regarded as just rich people’s privilege. With plenty of pilots leaving the air forces around the world, there wasn’t a shortage of instructors. And with mass produced trainers like Piper J-3 Cub and Cessna models 120 and 140, there were plenty of airplanes to go around. Even today, Cessna and Piper are almost synonymous for trainer airplanes.

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Defining easiest airplanes to learn to fly in isn’t a straightforward task. As with all other forms of learning, “easy” is a subjective category for the most part. There are few characteristics like easy handling, stability and forgiveness for errors that every airplane on our list have. But then again, every training airplane worth its salt has them as well. So, how does one determine which of them is the most beginner friendly? First of all, we concentrated on basic flight trainers. With no concrete parameters to go by, we decided to abide by the popular opinion. We have surveyed 25 piloting schools and tallied their fleets. Ten of them are from the United States, 4 from Germany, 3 from the United Kingdom, 3 from Italy and 2 from France and Australia each.

In order to better extrapolate the data we gathered from pilot schools, we awarded additional points for production numbers.

Although there are plenty of easy jobs in the Air Force that don’t require a pilot’s license, having one can open interesting career options. According to Boeing and their market research, the world will need 192,300 new pilots by the year 2032. It would seem that enrolling in pilot school is a smart career choice right about now. Just make sure that school’s fleet includes one of these 5 easiest airplanes to learn to fly in.