How many hours it take you to solo?

mscard88

mscard88

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Mark
Not that it means anything by soloing in more or less hours as safety comes first. I always had students trained in stalls, MCA, slow flight, simulated forced landing etc before turning them loose. Anyways, CC28 just soloed in 13 hours (congrats) so it's his fault there's now a thread! ;):)

Anyway, I think I was around 17 hours, maybe it was 13. I dunno. But it was at a fighter base in Korea, pretty busy place. Gotta keep the NKorean commies in line! ;)
 
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My instructor said I was ready at about 4-5 hours. But as I was his very first student (and as far as I know the only one he ever signed off) he said I couldn't solo until I had as many hours as he did when he soloed - 13.5

I just looked at my log book. I only had 6 solo flights (3 XC) before I was signed off for the check ride.
 
7.8 and those hours included mscard88's maneuvers. After I started teaching, did it the same way with my students.
 
I soloed at 7 hours in a C-172, but then I had been reading about flying since I was old enough to point at airplane pictures and had been flying R/C airplanes, R/C gliders and computer simulators (as crude as the were then) . I also learned at a small airport with only about 10 airplanes based at the airport. So I didn't really need to know much about radio communications, Traffic patterns, etc., we had however covered all the maneuvers the OP mentioned.

BTW, I have personal rule that I won't solo anyone in less than 10 hours, where I fly there is just to much to experience about traffic patterns how other pilot behave in the pattern to solo anyone with less, unless they have a lot of aviation experience that just doesn't happen to show up in a log book.

Brian
 
They let me solo on my Discovery Flight @ 0.0 hours. I win.

What's my prize?
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Not even an hour. It was just 3 laps around the pattern. Maybe 15 minutes...
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Has anyone else noticed that a lot of 6PC's claims bear a striking resemblance to a certain dictator from North Korea? Makes me suspicious. Has anyone ever seen him and Dear Leader together at the same time? :D
 
Yeah I saw them both at that burger joint he goes to!
 
Stingray Don said:
Has anyone else noticed that a lot of 6PC's claims bear a striking resemblance to a certain dictator from North Korea? Makes me suspicious. Has anyone ever seen him and Dear Leader together at the same time? :D
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I was just replying to the question "How many hours did it take you to solo?"
I have a video of my solo flight. It was only about 15 minutes. Can't imagine why it would take hours to do a solo.


meh... If ya have to explain the joke...

Sorry. As you were.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I was just replying to the question "How many hours did it take you to solo?"
I have a video of my solo flight. It was only about 15 minutes. Can't imagine why it would take hours to do a solo.


meh... If ya have to explain the joke...

Sorry. As you were.
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Oh, that one went right over my head. Pun intended!
 
mscard88 said:
King cake! :D
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You mean the giant donut? (which many did not recognize as a round Danish :) )

My CFI wanted me to solo in 5 hours. I asked to do more x-wind work so I soloed after total of 6. Big whoop. Din't win any prizes. Avgas price didn't drop, my father was not resurrected.
But then again, some might call me a cheat because I am an engineer and understand physics, numbers, all things mechanical and every single system in the airplane so those 6 hours were just plain flying (pun intended). ;)
 
8.something. Seems to be about average at least from the tshirts hanging up all over the place. 8-10 seems to be where 90% of them fall.
 
About an hour and a half or so logged before solo.

But, the first entry in the logbook was not the first time I had been in an airplane.
 
Ten hours ,that was way back when ,the instructor didn't give you an idea when you would solo. One day he would take you up,have you do a full stop,then get out and have you do three around the pattern.
 
You should add what class airspace...my dad soloed at 6 hours, but that was at a small airport in Idaho. I soloed at 13 hours at a pretty dang busy Class D airport :) - not bragging by any means just throwing it out there
 
My instructor put an entry in my logbook at 8 hours saying I was qualified to solo, but I didn't solo until about 150 hours.
That first entry was at age 14, and I had to wait until the morning of my 16th birthday to solo. It sure seemed like forever
waiting for that day to come.
 
As frfly said, back in the day when the instructor simply said pull here for a second, and as he gets out he said take it around once and then come back in.

5.8 hrs when I shut down. My dad said he was bummed because he soloed in 6...but I think he was proud. But then, I was 17 too.
All the CFI's now tell me it's impossible to get all the procedural signoff's done to solo someone in less than 10-15 hrs these days, which is really too bad.
 
Had to look in my logbook and it looks like I did it in 20 hours.
 
I think it was 16.2, but not certain seeing as though it was 1984.

I do believe, at least at the time, ground reference maneuvers were required pre solo.

I soloed several students, but that was too far back to remember.
 
18.6. Crosswinds were not kind to me when I first started. So we worked on cross countries. I wasn't happy. Wanted to solo in 10. But I did my checkride at 43.8. So I feel like I redeemed myself a little bit.
 
About 20 minutes. Coulda been less but the tower kept extending me down wind. It was about 7 months on the calendar and 16 hours on the Hobbs.
 
luvflyin said:
About 20 minutes. Coulda been less but the tower kept extending me down wind. It was about 7 months on the calendar and 16 hours on the Hobbs.
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Groan. Posted that and then read through the thread. I shoulda known someone would get to that punchline pretty quick.
 
I believe I was at 11.9 hours. Class D field with a Part 141 university program.
 
It's virtually impossible to get a solo done in under 9 hours unless you skip some of the FAA's requirements.
 
14 hrs but I owned my own plane and it wasn't really a big deal to me to get it done quickly.

I had my ck ride at 55.9 hrs about six months later. It could have been much quicker, but you need to be able to fly more frequently than I could. There would be weeks I couldn't fly for one reason or the other. Have fun, be safe.
 
Wow look at all these one uppers! The legendary pilots of POA - can't beat em'
 
I'm the slowpoke. Busy class d and lots of gaps in training so I'm pre-solo at 23 hours. Going to do a series of low approaches next time to get the round out and flare down


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