Iain Armitage is flying high following the end of Young Sheldon!
The 16-year-old actor, who played the younger version of Jim Parsons‘ character Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory on the CBS show, attended the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles 2024 Gala on Saturday, Oct. 5.
The young actor shared that he was excited to attend the event, which was held in tribute to hospital pediatric workers and patients at the CHLA, per the organization’s website. Additionally, Young Sheldon creator Chuck Lorre was honored during the ceremony for his contributions to the hospital.
“Mr. Chuck Lorre invited me, and I’m so honored to get to be here from his invite. But also, I’m a big fan of the work that CHLA has done, and I’m so happy to be here on behalf of both of them,” Armitage tells PEOPLE.
Armitage also chatted to PEOPLE exclusively about life after the hit TV series, which ended its final season in May. “I just got my pilot’s license, or my student pilot’s license,” he says at the event.
“I hopefully will get my private [pilot’s license] when I’m 17. And I’ve been having a bunch of fun flying while I’m here in L.A.,” Armitage coninues.
Adding that he’s already taken his grandmother and mom up in the air with him, he shares that he, “ actually turned 16 with my grandmother in the plane on my 16th birthday.”
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Armitage celebrated his 16th birthday on July 15, but he explained that the birthday festivities were “fun,” though a little more “subdued” while he was flying with his grandmother as a passenger.
“We had a kind of a fun, sort of more subdued celebration in the air. And then right when I touched down, we had a celebration at the airport at Van Nuys, which was so much fun,” he says.
Despite having such a young pilot, Armitage says was was “impressed” that his grandmother wasn’t nervous during the experience.
“She was surprisingly completely calm and collected. I was very, very impressed,” he says, noting that he “was flying such precious cargo.”
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In fact, his grandmother’s “biggest fear was having to climb up on the wing of the Piper [plane] to get in,” he says, adding that after that, “we had the best time. And then we had a wonderful dinner that evening as well with a bunch of friends and family, which was great.”
Armitage posted some sweet snaps from the birthday outing on his Instagram at the time, writing in the caption, in part, that the outing in the air with his grandmother was, “part of my pilot training.”
Later, on July 29, he revealed in the caption of another post that he had gotten to do his “first solo flight in a plane!,” describing it as “one of the very best days of my life!!”
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Meanwhile, when asked by PEOPLE on Oct. 5 whether he’s taking a little downtime after all the hard work of seven seasons on a hit TV show, he says he feels “lucky” to have had the opportunity.
“I’m sure it seems like hard work, but I’ve been so lucky. It’s the easiest, most fun job in the world. I get to play for a living, and I feel so honored and lucky to get to do that,” he says, explaining that he’s “a little bit taking time off, but also not really. I would love to get back into it. So, I’m definitely doing auditions and stuff.”
“I’ve been having a bunch of fun flying while I’m here in L.A. I’m gonna be doing some more flying, which can be a lot of fun, hopefully some movies and TV soon we’ll see,” he had earlier said.
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In February, Armitage spoke to PEOPLE asYoung Sheldon began its final season, reflecting on the show and the role that he first auditioned for when he was 8 years old.
“It’s been half my life, which is kind of wild to think about, but just so fun, so wonderful, and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to grow up,” he said at the time.
“Every single person I get to work with, I feel so honored to get to be working with and get to be their costar or … get to be part of their work and part of their livelihood,” Armitage added of the show, which he starred in with the likes of Annie Potts and Zoe Perry.
The young actor is set to appear next in the upcoming Christmas-themed animated movie Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, alongside an impressive cast that includes the late Andre Braugher, Mark Hamill, Cristo Fernández and Ming-Na Wen.
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