Is it hard to fly a plane?

Just soaring along at several thousand feet with no air traffic and no weather, is very easy. Landing is difficult. Landing in a gusty crosswind at night on an aircraft carrier would be very very difficult. Like most things, getting a pilot's license is do-able, but challenging

Flying the plane is the easy part of being a pilot.

A few years ago there were a number of kids that claimed the record for being the youngest person to fly coast to coast across the US - there was an instructor in the right seat to make it legal, but the kid in the pilot seat was the only one to touch the controls. We are talking about 12 and 13 year olds, that could not even get a learners permit for driving. For a year or 2 it seemed like every time one of these kids would complete the flights (they were not non-stop), and a few months later a youngster a few weeks younger would be trying to do the same.

This informal contest came to an end when a plane being flown by a 12 year old girl crashed when taking off in bad weather. The flight was delayed by media interviews and the "adults" involved decided try to keep to the planned schedule despite the thunderstorms in the area.

There is a lesson in all of this: almost any kid can be taught to control an airplane in flight, but it's judgement and decision making that determines if you are a pilot.

No.

In fact, flying attracts some of the most mentally challenged people in society....

Trained monkey can fly a plane.

But it takes a skilled person to land one in such a manner that he/she survives.

To fly a commercial jet, you need 10,000 hours in your own plane (or co-pilot a plane), take SEVERAL tests about flying and how a plane works.

To fly your own plane, you need a piloting license, and your own plane. Flying isn't just about the plane. Yes you need to know how to actually work everything in the cockpit, but you need to learn about aerodynamics to compensate for wind, speed, etc.

If you don't know how, yes.

yes, especially the Boeing 777-200ER.

nope

in it's most basic form no, but otherwise it is definitely more complex than driving a car

Actually, it is a bit like riding a bicycle, once you know how to do it you don't easily forget.

No, the actual physical flying of the aircraft is not hard at all, you need to develop the, for want of a better word, "reflexes" but once you get the pictures sorted in your brain as to how things should look, and I do mean that exactly as it sounds, it becomes quite instinctive.

I guess the harder bits are some of the theory areas, but there is nothing that anyone of normal intellect can't handle