Ammount of time to get private license

The 40 hours is minimum with instruction. To get the license you must also add the checkride which is usually another 2 or so hours before you get your PPL. There are fast-track programs that will feel like a firehose and get you a license sooner if you don't burn out. But whether you own your plane or rent the only reason to hurry and not do a lot of solo hours before the checkride versus flying those hours after you get your license is being able to take a passenger.
 
I did my PPL training at a military aero club in the Rockies. Went into my final stage check (with the Chief CFI) with 35.0 TT in the logbook, and went into the checkride with 36.3 TT. It's doable. Saved me a lot of money (which I used to continue renting from the club, flying lots of cross country trips).
 
If you don't count my instruction from 13 years ago, my restart took me 53 hours. I did an extra long XC to bide my time until my checkride, so that was an extra 4 hours. My 53 hours were spread from February to October. Reasons included bad weather, plane maintenance issues, instructor closing down shop and moving to a part time instructor.

If you include all of my training from start to finish, it was 88 hours. I was at 30+ hours (only needed solo and hood time) when life imploded in 2004. :frown: Life is good now. :happydance:

P.S. Next Friday is my one year anniversary of my return to the air! Logbooks remind you of all sorts of stuff.
 
Ravioli said:
Guys like @denverpilot and @Maui Cirrus CFII and @James331 who actually sign people off can offer their prospective on what takes more and less time after that first solo.

My recollection is I was safely soloed, then worked navigation and more time alone, and then worked to tighten up my procedures to what used to be called PTS standards.

Others will chime in, but I doubt my solo "three around the patch" would have gotten me PPL. Heck, I still have the occasional landing that makes me question the guy who signed me off!

But that's why we say "It's a license to learn." :)
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Ever since I put an AoA indicator in the time to solo has dropped by 25-30%. Newbies get it, they know where the danger zone is and they fly colors instead of pegging some speed. That being said I find that the biggest issue then becomes centerline and wing low for cross wind. But it's amazing to me that the dangerous stuff (base to final) or getting too slow goes away super quick with AoA. So on the one hand this is great for the student. On the other hand flight schools will earn less revenue!
 
*Didn't read all respones*

But.... doing it in 40 is undoable unless you're super-pilot, IMO.
If someone was pushed through with 40 hours, I wouldn't let my wife fly in that airplane. As I said, it's possible there are exceptions, but I'm playing the odds. I was an active CFI at one point, and saw a wide variety of standards as I did BFR's and FBO checkouts. Many I would have never signed off for their PPL.
 
Maui Cirrus CFII said:
Ever since I put an AoA indicator in the time to solo has dropped by 25-30%. Newbies get it, they know where the danger zone is and they fly colors instead of pegging some speed. That being said I find that the biggest issue then becomes centerline and wing low for cross wind. But it's amazing to me that the dangerous stuff (base to final) or getting too slow goes away super quick with AoA. So on the one hand this is great for the student. On the other hand flight schools will earn less revenue!
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Well played Maui! :rofl:
 
Maui Cirrus CFII said:
Ever since I put an AoA indicator in the time to solo has dropped by 25-30%. Newbies get it, they know where the danger zone is and they fly colors instead of pegging some speed. That being said I find that the biggest issue then becomes centerline and wing low for cross wind. But it's amazing to me that the dangerous stuff (base to final) or getting too slow goes away super quick with AoA. So on the one hand this is great for the student. On the other hand flight schools will earn less revenue!
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And when these students go somewhere else and rent without an AOA they have no idea how to fly...
 
Maui Cirrus CFII said:
Ever since I put an AoA indicator in the time to solo has dropped by 25-30%. Newbies get it, they know where the danger zone is and they fly colors instead of pegging some speed. That being said I find that the biggest issue then becomes centerline and wing low for cross wind. But it's amazing to me that the dangerous stuff (base to final) or getting too slow goes away super quick with AoA. So on the one hand this is great for the student. On the other hand flight schools will earn less revenue!
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Yea, all those numbers, it's so confusing, colors much simpler. I'm glad we're soloing pilots who are too stupid to understand simple numbers. No wonder we still see pilots run out of fuel, maybe we develop a fuel gauge with pretty colors too!
 
I did 50 hours, and my Cfi essentially told me "you are ready, let's get your license" and that's when I knew I had it.
 
Somedudeintn said:
And when these students go somewhere else and rent without an AOA they have no idea how to fly...
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I had an issue with that when I flew my dads buddy's Maule. I learned real quick, as I was totally lost at first and didn't want to look like an idiot. The next time I flew it went really well but he was understandably a little nervous to let me fly again.
 
I guess I am pretty average. Soloed just under 10. I had finished the requirements around 40. Felt ready around for the test at 50. Then flew another 9 practicing and mostly waiting for the checkride including some practice checkrides. Checkride lasted one hour felt very well prepared. I was flying once a week or every other week. Took me just about two weeks shy of a year start to finish.
 
Maui Cirrus CFII said:
Ever since I put an AoA indicator in the time to solo has dropped by 25-30%. Newbies get it, they know where the danger zone is and they fly colors instead of pegging some speed. That being said I find that the biggest issue then becomes centerline and wing low for cross wind. But it's amazing to me that the dangerous stuff (base to final) or getting too slow goes away super quick with AoA. So on the one hand this is great for the student. On the other hand flight schools will earn less revenue!
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What is the student demographic? Like 4 year olds, or chimpanzees, or something?

Just when you thought no one would try to dumb down flying anymore, here comes Maui wowie with that F'ing gem.


 
I just wish auto licenses were as difficult, time consuming, and costly as airplane licenses. Then maybe we wouldn't have so many idiots on the road. Imagine the average automobile driver having to spend $8-12,000 JUST to get a license? Then there's the upgrades for driving in weather or playing taxi driver (Uber/Lift/soccer mom/carpooler). Not to mention, another $3-400 periodically to keep it? And how about those $2,000 annuals on their 4cyl 40 year old autos?
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Time to complete is dependent on lots of things. Life happens is a big one. Reason for as well. I was signed off early to go solo to an airport 25 miles away. Nothing said it had to be a straight line, nor said anything about how long I could be gone. I got a lot of solo time, experienced all kinds of traffic, spent a lot of time talking to a tower or enroute controllers, different airspaces weather, and crosswinds. But I am just doing this as a hobby. No future designs on being a corporate, commercial, or test pilot. Pure fun. So what floats your boat is a reason. Age is also a reason. Us older dogs have to work harder to learn new tricks.
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If I'm in an aviation class, the driving need is GPA aND future care er building. Banging around for a $150 burger, I'd take my time.
 
You can do it in the minimum time if you have an instructor that is effective (following a sylabus and not wasting time) and you get everything right off.

As for my personal experience, it took me 57 hours and about 9 months. A lot of this was trying to get my solo XCs scheduled getting the weather and me and a plane all synced up at the same time. I did a lot of 1.4 hour "go out and practice" sessions to keep fresh while I was waiting. This also includes some things like grabbing a 172 with my instructor and taking one of the cute girls from behind the desk at the flight school and going out to dinner.
 
Maui Cirrus CFII said:
Ever since I put an AoA indicator in the time to solo has dropped by 25-30%. Newbies get it, they know where the danger zone is and they fly colors instead of pegging some speed. That being said I find that the biggest issue then becomes centerline and wing low for cross wind. But it's amazing to me that the dangerous stuff (base to final) or getting too slow goes away super quick with AoA. So on the one hand this is great for the student. On the other hand flight schools will earn less revenue!
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This is ridiculous. An AOA isn't going to make a bit of difference in time to solo. This kind of idiotic hype is why you get so much flack.
 
Start/stop really does slow things down. Most adult people with a life outside of flight training just can't commit to being at the airport outside of evenings and weekends. Throw in weather delays, spousal maintenance, and other commitments and before you know it a month has gone by with no flight time. Then you get in the cockpit and you're slightly rusty and spend half your next lesson re-acquainting yourself. That's not as big of a thing when learning the basics but when you're trying to dial-in your crosswind technique or get other maneuvers from poor to good enough for checkride that doesn't work well. You really need to be practicing a few times a week to sharpen the skills like that.

People make a big ado about how a training aircraft ought to be equipped and what order things need to come in and whatnot but when you get toward the end of your training it comes down to flying the airplane through all the required takeoffs/landings/maneuvers over and over again until everything is up to standard every time. That takes a time commitment, an available airplane, an available CFI, and cooperative weather over long periods.... a hard thing to get to line up for you. I think this above all else is why so many people need well above the minimum hours.
 
Start to finish: 15 days in April 2010 - 43 hours until check-ride. After passing the check-rides, we rented a plane and flew from Florida to New York and back as we still had a week vacation left. :):D:)
 
I'm in this situation, and agree totally with the "life happens" answers. I'm a very good student! Read all the material thoroughly, great comprehension, confident, ask a lot of questions, and I've got an aviation family and friends backing me. But...

-Birth of a child
-Job change
-House purchase
-Family issues
-Work travel (extensive, for those of you who I'm friends with on Facebook can see...)
-Home improvements

Could I have made finishing my ticket a priority, and finish it in 40 hours? Sure. I don't think it would have gone very well for my home life or my finances at the time, and that is clearly more important. So here I am with maybe 15 hours, last lesson over two years ago, and I'm starting again this month, no doubt back to the beginning. If I wrap it up in 40 then I'll be close to 60 start to finish, but realistically across 3-5 years.

BTW...great to be back everyone! Hope you're all doing well!
 
Kritchlow said:
*Didn't read all respones*

But.... doing it in 40 is undoable unless you're super-pilot, IMO.
If someone was pushed through with 40 hours, I wouldn't let my wife fly in that airplane. As I said, it's possible there are exceptions, but I'm playing the odds. I was an active CFI at one point, and saw a wide variety of standards as I did BFR's and FBO checkouts. Many I would have never signed off for their PPL.
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I got my ticket at 40 hrs. My last few hours to get to 40 were basically just flying around solo to get the minimum hrs. Does that mean I was a great pilot, heck no, but I had learned plenty in that amount of time to pass the check ride and get me started on my piloting journey. Before starting training, I had saved up some money so I could avoid too many starts and stops. As a result, I took 3 months to the day from discovery flight to check ride. I could have gone faster, but I realized early on that I could only take a certain amount of time in the plane before my head was full and I quit learning. Because of this, I did 1 to 1.5 hour flights for most of the training, and kept on a steady pace for the 3 months. With that said, I learned at a non-towered airport that is not busy at all, had access to a plane pretty much all anytime, and had good weather most of the time, other than nearly constant wind. The stars pretty much aligned perfectly for me to get it done quickly, but as others have mentioned, everybody learns at a different pace, and it doesn't even matter.

I have to disagree with Kritchlow, and I think it's pretty unfair of him to say such a thing. While I was no "super-pilot" by any stretch of the imagination, I was competent enough to meet the standards.

With all that said, not all CFIs are good teachers. I would imagine that is often a factor in the amount of hours it takes some people to be ready for the check ride. I've been around some CFIs that are good people, but just have a hard time teaching effectively or efficiently. I've know others that are good teachers, but their expectations of students is unrealistic, or they try to teach too much at one time, etc.

Everyone's experience is different, everybody learns different, no CFI is the same, no examiner is the same, and none of it really matters as long as you continue to learn and strive to fly safely, confidently, and always try to get better.
 
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OkieFlyer said:
I got my ticket at 40 hrs. My last few hours to get to 40 were basically just flying around solo to get the minimum hrs. Does that mean I was a great pilot, heck no, but I had learned plenty in that amount of time to pass the check ride and get me started on my piloting journey. Before starting training, I had saved up some money so I could avoid too many starts and stops. As a result, I took 3 months to the day from discovery flight to check ride. I could have gone faster, but I realized early on that I could only take a certain amount of time in the plane before my head was full and I quit learning. Because of this, I did 1 to 1.5 hour flights for most of the training, and kept on a steady pace for the 3 months. With that said, I learned at a non-towered airport that is not busy at, had access to a plane pretty much all anytime, and had good weather most of the time, other than nearly constant . The stars pretty much aligned perfectly for me to get it done quickly, but as others have mentioned, everybody learns at a different pace, and it doesn't even matter.

I have to disagree with Kritchlow, and I think it's pretty unfair of him to say such a thing. While I was no "super-pilot" by any stretch of the imagination, I was competent enough to meet the standards.

With all that said, not all CFIs are good teachers. I would imagine that is often a factor in the amount of hours it takes some people to be ready for the check ride. I've been around some CFIs that are good people, but just have a hard time teaching. I've know others that are good teachers, but their expectations of students is unrealistic, or they try to teach too much at one time, etc.

Everyone's experience is different, everybody learns different, no CFI is the same, no examiner is the same, and none of it really matters as long as you continue to learn and strive to fly safely, confidently, and always try to get better.
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And some CFI's have higher standards. Yes the now defunct PTS was the official standard, but it was still a judgement call by the CFI if a maneuver was ever in doubt.
When I was a CFI my students couldn't solo in a crosswind until the actual upwind wing was down and the nose was straight. I saw a lot of CFI's let it go with "well, they can get it close without too much side load".
 
Kritchlow said:
And some CFI's have higher standards. Yes the now defunct PTS was the official standard, but it was still a judgement call by the CFI if a maneuver was ever in doubt.
When I was a CFI my students couldn't solo in a crosswind until the actual upwind wing was down and the nose was straight. I saw a lot of CFI's let it go with "well, they can get it close without too much side load".
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I hear you. I certainly understand that CFIs have somewhat different standards, and some examiners are easier than others. That doesn't mean that a person that got the job done in 40 hrs is unsafe to fly with.

Anywho, I just know I wasn't a super pilot and soloed at 8 hrs and passed the check ride with 40 hrs, and felt ready for it. Perhaps my instructor was a super-instructor.

Crosswind practice begins on the discovery flight here on the plains.
 
OkieFlyer said:
I hear you. I certainly understand that CFIs have somewhat different standards, and some examiners are easier than others. That doesn't mean that a person that got the job done in 40 hrs is unsafe to fly with.

Anywho, I just know I wasn't a super pilot and soloed at 8 hrs and passed the check ride with 40 hrs, and felt ready for it. Perhaps my instructor was a super-instructor.

Crosswind practice begins on the discovery flight here on the plains.
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If you got it in 40, you must have been pretty good.
Not many do.
 
I started in Feb of 1982 and got my PPL in October of 2016. I must be on the high side. :)
 
Started mine in April 2016, tore my ACL a week later. My first solo was 2 days before my surgery in early July which then put me out of flying for about 7 weeks. I finished everything by early December, called a DPE but couldn't get on the schedule until after the holidays. A month of dealing with Ohio winter weather and I just got my ticket last week.

I was ready at 46 hours (and 7.5 months), flew another 4 to stay proficient while waiting for weather and schedules to align (9.5 months total). Without sitting out after my knee surgery, I most likely would have been done in 6 months/low 40's.
 
Kritchlow said:
If you got it in 40, you must have been pretty good.
Not many do.
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I suppose that's possible. I was really trying to illustrate that if you have the time and money on hand to stick to a pretty steady pace, I think the odds of getting the PPL in 50 hours or less hrs is much better. I believe that if I had stopped and started a bunch, and dragged it out for several months, I would have needed more hours. I knew another 10 hours was another $1000+ that I didn't have, so I busted arse to get it learnt.
 
You will find a big variance in this line of training. There are people who still haven't soloed after 100 hours (and have no intention to either) and there are pilots who are just naturals and fly through the curriculum (pun intended) in less than the FAA required minimum. Humans are a very diverse pool.
 
OkieFlyer said:
I got my ticket at 40 hrs. My last few hours to get to 40 were basically just flying around solo to get the minimum hrs. Does that mean I was a great pilot, heck no, but I had learned plenty in that amount of time to pass the check ride and get me started on my piloting journey. Before starting training, I had saved up some money so I could avoid too many starts and stops. As a result, I took 3 months to the day from discovery flight to check ride. I could have gone faster, but I realized early on that I could only take a certain amount of time in the plane before my head was full and I quit learning. Because of this, I did 1 to 1.5 hour flights for most of the training, and kept on a steady pace for the 3 months. With that said, I learned at a non-towered airport that is not busy at, had access to a plane pretty much all anytime, and had good weather most of the time, other than nearly constant . The stars pretty much aligned perfectly for me to get it done quickly, but as others have mentioned, everybody learns at a different pace, and it doesn't even matter.

I have to disagree with Kritchlow, and I think it's pretty unfair of him to say such a thing. While I was no "super-pilot" by any stretch of the imagination, I was competent enough to meet the standards.

With all that said, not all CFIs are good teachers. I would imagine that is often a factor in the amount of hours it takes some people to be ready for the check ride. I've been around some CFIs that are good people, but just have a hard time teaching. I've know others that are good teachers, but their expectations of students is unrealistic, or they try to teach too much at one time, etc.

Everyone's experience is different, everybody learns different, no CFI is the same, no examiner is the same, and none of it really matters as long as you continue to learn and strive to fly safely, confidently, and always try to get better.
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Had the exact same experience. I think I was at 41TT when I took the exam. Started in mid-November and finished in mid-February. I wasn't a master by any means (still nowhere near it), but I was competent and safe to fly. Were there a lot of things that I could have spent more time on? Sure. Does it mean I was better than some one who took 100hrs to get the same ticket? Nope, not in the slightest. Everyone learns at a different pace and there are a lot of external factors (aircraft, instructors, weather, money, free time) that can severely impact the time to completion.
 
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