Never too old to spread your wings

It has always been thought that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Unless you're dumber than a dog, this isn't actually true. (And as smart and wonderful as my dog is, he's still a dog who can't fly.)

Much modern neuroscience research has shown that the aging brain is nearly as capable of learning as the young brain is. In fact, it may be more important to keep learning later in life in order to keep the brain active in order to keep those "senior moments" from becoming a "senior lifetime".

The oldest flight student I ever had was 82 years old. Since he still kept himself mentally active and on the lookout for new things to learn, he was still a very sharp man. He had more difficulty getting in and out of the plane than he did getting into the lessons.

Last month, the BBC had an article called "The amazing fertility of the older mind" that goes why you can and should keep learning new things at any age. The key take away comes from a study by Denise Park at the Center for Vital Longevity at the University of Texas at Dallas:

Park first divided her 200 participants into groups and assigned them to a programme of different activities for 15 hours a week for three months. Some were offered the opportunity to learn new skills – quilting, digital photography, or both – that would challenge their long-term memory and attention as they followed complex instructions. Others were given more passive tasks, such as listening to classical music or completing crossword puzzles, or social activities – such as field trips to local sites of interest. At the beginning and the end of the three months, Parks also gave the participants a memory test.

Of all the participants, only the subjects learning the quilting or the photography enjoyed a significant improvement – with 76% of the photographers showing a higher score at the second memory test, for instance. A later brain scan found that this seemed to be reflected in lasting changes to circuits in the medial frontal, lateral temporal, and parietal cortex - areas associated with attention and concentration. Overall, the more active pastime of learning a new skill led to the more efficient brain activity you might observe in a younger brain, while the passive activities like listening to music brought no changes. Crucially, these benefits were long-lasting, lingering for more than a year after the participants had completed their course.

I've written many, many times about how flying enriches life. Now there's proof that it can enhance your brain, too. If quilting can bring positive and long-lasting changes to the brain, imagine how much more benefit would come from learning something so much more complex, like flying!

Even if medical issues keep you from getting in a cockpit, that doesn't totally prevent you from learning to fly. You can always fly with an instructor on board. You won't be able to solo, but you can still enjoy the experience of flight.

You can also use a home flight simulator. The nice thing about Microsoft Flight Simulator (or its successor, Prepar3d) or X-Plane is that there is no cost per hour, no drive to the airport, and no medical required. Plus you can try out things in a sim that you'd never do it the real world, which engages your brain even more.

The article wraps itself up in a way that I actually can't improve upon:

You may be surprised by how much you enjoy the challenge itself. "The participants got more confidence in themselves," Park says. One man went on to take photographs for his local newspaper; another woman had at first reluctantly attended the quilting class, despite having no real interest in the skill. She still wasn’t convinced by the end, but her successes had nevertheless inspired her to take up a new hobby – painting – instead. "I didn’t like quilting, but I had learnt how to learn," she told Park.

So why not give it a go yourself and attempt to stretch your mind beyond its comfort zone? As Priscilla Sitienei – the 90-year-old Kenyan great-great-grandmother – put it: "Education has no age limit."

See you next Wednesday!

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The author is an airline pilot, flight instructor, and adjunct college professor teaching aviation ground schools. He holds an ATP certificate with ERJ-145 and DHC-8 type ratings, as well as CFI, CFII, MEI, AGI, and IGI certificates, and is a Master-level participant in the FAA's WINGS program and a former FAASafety Team representative. He is on Facebook as Larry the Flying Guy, has a Larry the Flying Guy YouTube channel, and is on Twitter as @Lairspeed.

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