Early Solo and Low time PPL

I did my first solo at 8 hours and passed my check ride with 42 hours. I had the benefit of being able to fly 4 or 5 hours a week which I think helped a lot. Some have said that they think the student needs to be proficient enough to not only safely fly in the pattern, but to also cross country flight and everything that goes along with that before solo. It seems like these instructors are looking for the student to be essentially capable of passing their checkride before letting them solo. If that is what is expected to solo, then I am not sure what other criteria they may use to determine when someone is ready for the checkride. This may be one reason for seeing people with 150 hours still in training. I really believe that you can progress much faster with progressive autonomy, rather than developing the crutch of having an instructor in the seat beside you for 60-70, or more hours (and it can be done safely).
 
Who's safer-- the pilot who solos early and passes their checkride right at the minimum hours required or the pilot who solos at a highly above average number of hours (say 60) and eventually goes on to pass their checkride but again with a higher total time (say double or triple) than the minimums? IMO hours alone, taken in isolation, don't necessarily paint an accurate picture as to ability and judgement required to fly safely. Truth in lending, I soloed at 11hrs and passed my checkride with 55hrs TT which I consider to be pretty average, at least back in 1986.
 
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My first solo was delayed by the instructor.

I thought I was ready, but he did not solo me. He left, a new instructor came in and soloed me on our first flight.

Military, you had a syllabus, and unless you were messing up and needing more rides, you soloed on X ride. It looks like in the T-37 it was the 15th flight. Most flights were about 1.5 hours.
 
francisco collazos said:
I don't plan on making those mistakes again but can a person truly gain enough experience at 8 hr solo with 40 hr ppl?
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I solo’d at 11 hrs and PPL at 40. I’m shocked at how little I knew at 11 hours.
 
I soloed at 19.7 hrs and finished at 55.0. I did not fly more than twice a week. I didn’t get to do any landing until 5.9 hrs. The beginning of my training was focused on flying straight, keeping airspeed, doing stalls, etc.
 
tsts4 said:
Who's safer-- the pilot who solos early and passes their checkride right at the minimum hours required or the pilot who solos at a highly above average number of hours (say 60) and eventually goes on to pass their checkride but again with a higher total time (say double or triple) than the minimums? IMO hours alone ,taken in isolation, don't necessarily paint an accurate picture as to ability and judgement required to fly safely. Truth in lending, I soloed at 11hrs and passed my checkride with 55hrs TT which I consider to be pretty average, at least back in 1986.
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hours are meaningless.

For some people, it will click right away.

Others will take seemingly forever.

At the end of the trail, both are pilots.
 
EdFred said:
I was one of "those" as well. CFI was looking for filler material, because flying everything just clicked. I was flying 2-5 times per week. Now I'm a CFI and when 61.87 is satisfied and the student can make 10 take offs/patterns/landings in a row where I don't have to say anything and my hands stay on my lap without moving towards the yoke, they get signed off to solo. When the satisfy yhe rest of 61 and can fly the mock check ride at tolerances × 0.5 they are signed off for check ride.

We also do more than just 61 reqs.
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Way to rob your students.

The DPE doesn't really care about minimums, they care that you can spot the errors and correct them.

I made many errors on my checkride and i cought and corrected all of them without prompting. So if you dip below 100ft on your steep turns who cares as long ss you see it and apply the correct inputs.

I make at least one error on every flight. But i realized that there is an issue and fix it, not just blindly fly obviously.
 
SkyChaser said:
As far as I can tell, it's the only advantage, too! :p :D
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well....maybe saving $$ might be another...if it leads to also finishing faster....

I had to look
I had almost 3 months and around about 14.5 hours to solo....and a few more than 46 landings logged
I had almost 13 months and about 63 hours at my PPL checkride
not really brag worthy but I was happy with it. It was what I could do and I think it was great, considering....

I was a weekend flyer. An entire calendar month before I soloed I logged only one flight. Scrolling thorough it looks like most months on the way to the PPL I logged 4 flights. One month in the middle I had 0 flights and another only 1. A few months had only 2-3 flights...and a whopping 9 flights the month prior to my checkride....
Looking back on it I was young, single, no kids, and in a new town, by myself and even though I was working a full time professional job it seems like I had all the time in the world...I guess I didn't have all the money I needed and weather probably got in a way some too.... Even though I wasn't able to fly twice a week or whatever, one advantage I did have was plenty of time and interest to read, study, and chair fly.

We each have our own abilities and hurdles. As others have said, the actual digits don't mean much of anything......
 
Brad W said:
well....maybe saving $$ might be another...if it leads to also finishing faster....

I had to look
I had almost 3 months and around about 14.5 hours to solo....and a few more than 46 landings logged
I had almost 13 months and about 63 hours at my PPL checkride
not really brag worthy but I was happy with it. It was what I could do and I think it was great, considering....
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I had to look as well . . .

Clearly saving money is a plus and finishing faster eliminates the backward steps that occur with periods of inactivity. In my case I sold my motorcycle to pre-pay the flight curriculum (but not a great idea if the school could go bankrupt). At the time I was a surgical resident on the Emergency Room rotation, which had a 24 hour on and a 24 hour off schedule, so I told my instructor that I had every other day on schedule to fly and that I would do all the course book work before each lesson. (The ER isn't always busy, and I could fit in study and sleep in the 24 hour time slot.) My instructor, who went on to an airline career and a DPE job was willing to work efficiently with my time frame. I ended up paying around $900 or so to get the certificate (that's about $5400 in today's dollars), and as a part 141 school you could do the check ride in 35 hours. (I did it in 36.2 hours.) My first solo was on August 5th and the check ride was on August 25th, and when I finished I had some money left on account from the pre-payment, which I applied immediately towards an aerobatic course. Of course, that was 1974 and things were different, but I have been flying regularly for the 48 years since then, which is when I've learned MOST of what I know now.

So I don't think hours to solo is as critical as hours to certification, which relates to cost. Think about how many people start lessons then pause because of funds. Many of them never resume training.
 
Pinecone said:
Being a CFI you will see a LOT more ways of doing things wrong, and you will have to analyze what is being done wrong, how it is being done wrong and how to correct that, and make that correction understood.
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I have only been a CFI for a little over 3 months and I have already seen people do things completely unexpected. Fortunately, at least so far, I have connected very well with my students and we are fixing things.
 
I soloed in about 8 hours (I flew every day for two weeks to get my PPL, and soloed on my second day), and got my PPL after 44 hours...That was several decades ago, and I'm now working toward my second thousand hours. I was dangerous when I had +-50 hours, but more so because I was also 23 years old. I really couldn't even drive well yet, let alone pilot well.
 
Just another data point, but I soloed at 12 hours and passed check ride with 41.0. This was 20 years ago, but I think the bigger factors are sleepy uncontrolled field, simple plane/avionics, and flying 3-5 times a week. Also, when I soloed, I was only (barely) competent for three trips around the pattern. Sounds like a lot of the instructors in this thread expect near checkride ready before they're comfortable soloing a student. May be good for some students, but certainly not all.
 
psween said:
Just another data point, but I soloed at 12 hours and passed check ride with 41.0. This was 20 years ago, but I think the bigger factors are sleepy uncontrolled field, simple plane/avionics, and flying 3-5 times a week. Also, when I soloed, I was only (barely) competent for three trips around the pattern. Sounds like a lot of the instructors in this thread expect near checkride ready before they're comfortable soloing a student. May be good for some students, but certainly not all.
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My last student was ~12 hours to solo, and none of them have been over 20, so it's not like I'm dragging things way out or feel uncomfortable. Efficiency and getting them to absorb the information is key. Teach it correctly (helps having a WIDE background of reference points to relate to for them) and they learn quick. No dragging things out, no milking the students. Other than my dad who had his own plane, and flew about 25 solo hours and a 100 landings between the time I soloed him and our next dual lesson, all my students were checkride ready at under 45 hours.
 
Lindberg said:
How many hours do you have now? Do you have your private?
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I have about 120hr and my checkride is set for early next month.

To the person who mentioned personal autonomy I really think that was the situation in my case. My prior instructor flat out told me that in order to solo I must be able to "share the sky with fellow pilots." We would fly together to a non controlled airport about 15 min away where we would then proceed to do about 4-6 landings. The problem that I had was, if the turn was not 90 degrees he would get on my case. Ironically my new instructor fixed this problem with teaching me about the heading bug. He solved that in 10 min. The other issue I had was the prior instructor would not let me fix my own problems. So for instance if I was too high...go around...too low...go around...not lined up...go around. If I did get into ground effect he would place his hands so that I was unable to move the yoke past the travel stops his hands made.

When I went to the new instructor, He soloed me in about 5 hr, fixed my headings with the travel bug and made me make the calls myself and did not allow me to use him as a crutch.My new cfi said... you need to fix and correct your issues yourself and sure enough a lot of this clicked. Unfortunately, my prior instructor made me much more nervous so I had to work with those issues.

One of my big worries was calling in locations relative to where I was at vs the field. That improved with experience and using foreflight to be able to determine the best path and most likely directions that the tower was going to give me.
 
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These threads are always a chuckle. If you solo'd in 4 hours, it doesn't mean you're the next Bob Hoover. You've probably had a lot of machinery experience. A CFI friend of mine used to say backhoe operators were easy to teach to fly as they were accustomed to using both hands and both feet all doing different things @ the same time, while keeping an eye on everything.

On the other hand, if one can't change their own tire, it could take a while to solo.... Also operating in the 3D world of flight, and thinking ahead, doesn't come to everyone the same.
 
A few minutes over 8 hrs solo at 16 in 1954 and 45 hrs Private at 17 in 1955. Back then there was much less to learn. All my dual and practice was stick and rudder stuff.
An Aeronca Champ was the usual trainer. A C-120/140 was the step up in speed and luxury.
I don't see how anyone could do it in that time today.
 
dbahn said:
One advantage of early solo is you get to brag about it later. :p
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soloing early means your instructor / school has a goal of getting you past the check ride, rather than billing you hourly.

That's not to say everyone can solo early. It takes as long as it takes.

Or, maybe you're just unpleasant to sit next to? Forget what I said above.
 
I was an 11 and 40 guy. I think it depends on how often you fly combined with ability and preparation. When I was a CFI the student’s attitude was important as well. I was fortunate to be able fly 3-4 times a week as a student. It worked out for me, I retired as a 767 captain and I’m back to flying 172s and Warriors and loving it!
 
I solo'd with 7 hours and got the Private ticket in 41 hours. However, I have been in love with airplanes since the time I could walk and had spent hundreds of hours on flight simulator as a kid. I believe my early exposure to understanding some of the physics of flight as well as reading instrument panel and such helped accelerate my actual flight training so that less time was spent teaching material I already knew. I was also able to finish the 41 hours in about 3 months which kept the feel of flying "fresh" in my mind.

Now, none of that makes me a better pilot than someone with twice that number of hours. It's just a product of when I was ready to pass an exam to PTS standards.
 
Soloed at 9.6 hours and took my test at 59 hours. I had all of the requirements done very close to 40. I needed 10 more before I felt ready the rest were just staying sharp while waiting for the test. It took me a few weeks shy of a year from start to finish.

I don't think the hours matter. Some people need to be flying more and more often some don't. Some take longer to catch on. Some CFIs are not very good, some are just concerned about making money and some are are just afraid to cut the chord. Too many factors really for a firm rule.
 
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