Poll: How Many Hours for PPL?

[OkieFlyer]

8 solo
40 ppl
2011

 

[Dav8or]

Bad poll. It self selects for all those that indeed met the minimums and soloed in as few hours as possible. The huge numbers of others keep their mouth shut.

Flytime, you did great. Knocked it out fast and saved some cash. Now that you have your ticket, the real lessons begin.

 

[Silvaire]

It was a simple question, number of hours. Why make a big deal out of it? It's a statistic so how can it be "flawed"?

The numbers are what they are, period, for whatever reason.

 

[Tradford]

I signed up for training on a whim and was only interested in learning how to hover. It was so hard that I kept pushing my goals until I ended up getting a PPL a month ago. Took a total of 11 months, three CFIs, 32 hours to solo and 72 by the time I finished my check ride (failed the run on landing the first time and had to re-take that maneuver a few weeks later). Finally - one more senior citizen flying helicopters over Atlanta! Hard to top that for bucket list items.

 

[brywd]

1988 - Solo at around 6 hours, and check ride at 44. My instructor told me I was ready at 40, but he needed 1 more pass in order to get his Gold Seal to we did 4 hours of check ride practice so I wouldn't screw him up.

In retrospect 44 hours was to soon because I came away having never flown into, through, over, or under a TCA (now known as Class Bravo) even though my airport borders one. I was also uncomfortable with flight following as well which is something that I should have come out of training prepared to use.

Every once in while I meet a student pilot and when they tell of having 120 hours plus hours into their private and still taking lessons I wonder what is going on. Are there so few students that CFI's need to bleed them dry? Is it insurance issues or fear by CFI's, or what? I'd love to hear from CFI's how so many students take triple the time to get their license than 15 or twenty years ago?

Thread drift, but while typing this something weird was happening. Above in parenthesis when typing Class Bravo I originally typed B instead. The B didn't show up, a smiley did instead. Strange... Trying the same thing again to see if it does it again. (now known as Class B) It did, anybody have a splanation for dis?

 

[Doggtyred]

How many hours did it take you to solo, and how many to license? Give us the year you earned it as well, because I suspect the hours to earn a PPL have gone up over the years.

For me, 14 hours to solo and 46 total (not including the checkride). Training took 11 months and I earned it earlier this year.

2000 ish..

Solo at 17 on a grass strip in a 150... ( hours = took a while to "get" the flare and landings )... ticket at 42-43.. I was ready at 40 but my CFI said that DE's are wary of someone endorsed at 40.0 hours...


I did a LOT.. and I mean a LOT of reading above and beyond the PPL curriculum. Made land nav that much easier..

 

[AuntPeggy]

Bad poll. It self selects for all those that indeed met the minimums and soloed in as few hours as possible. The huge numbers of others keep their mouth shut.

Flytime, you did great. Knocked it out fast and saved some cash. Now that you have your ticket, the real lessons begin.

Except me.

It was a simple question, number of hours. Why make a big deal out of it? It's a statistic so how can it be "flawed"?

The numbers are what they are, period, for whatever reason.

Because nearly every answer is someone who has bragging rights. It isn't really a statistic.

Nevertheless, providing a thread for bragging is OK. As long as you don't take the responses as proving anything.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Above in parenthesis when typing Class Bravo I originally typed B instead. The B didn't show up, a smiley did instead. Strange... Trying the same thing again to see if it does it again. (now known as Class B) It did, anybody have a splanation for dis?

Because the "code" for the B) is B followed by ).

 

[azure]

Bad poll. It self selects for all those that indeed met the minimums and soloed in as few hours as possible. The huge numbers of others keep their mouth shut.

Not all the others. My stats: (all between 12/01 and 9/02):

95 hours to solo
250 hours to PPL

The long pre-solo delay was waiting for a SI medical. During that time I knocked off all the other requirements. But after my 3 supervised solos I switched instructors and ended up enjoying myself so much as a solo student that I lost the ambition to go for my checkride. I did 7 officially signed-off solo cross-countries, 3 of which would have qualified as a "long solo XC".

 

[jsstevens]

16 hours to solo spread over 8 months. (Remember the 4 hurricanes in Florida? Yeah, that year.) Although my CFI told me at 6 hours that he would have soloed me that day if I'd taken the pre-solo written he required.

57.8 hours for first check ride attempt. March of 2006. Busted.

65.0 Second check ride, April 12, 2006. Passed.

I spread my training way out because of finances and life. Took almost 2 years. I actually had to get a new student medical to take the check ride. I got my first one before I started training because I was not sure if my eyesight was good enough to pass.

John

 

[Dav8or]

It was a simple question, number of hours. Why make a big deal out of it? It's a statistic so how can it be "flawed"?

The numbers are what they are, period, for whatever reason.

According to the OP's first post, he is trying to find out if it takes more hours to get a PPL now, then it did in the old days. So he is "polling" people here by asking to post their hours and then the year they did it in.

Here is what he said-

How many hours did it take you to solo, and how many to license? Give us the year you earned it as well, because I suspect the hours to earn a PPL have gone up over the years.

The problem is, historically, pilots and the general public have always praised a low time to solo and low time to pass the PPL test because it is supposed to be an indicator of natural piloting skills. The poll is not anonymous, so those that took a long time to solo, or get their ticket, keep their mouth shut (except AP) and those that did it in record time post up fast. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if we were to find out that some make up the numbers just to be one of the cool kids.

I think the results of this "poll" so far bear this out. The FAA believes the average time to PPL is between 60-75 hours, but where are these average pilots in this thread and where are these below average pilots that took 100 hours? (except AP) Are the pilots that post on POA really just that good?

I think time to solo and time to PPL are effected more by where the pilot trained rather than when. Those that learned in the boondocks likely are good to go faster than those that learn at an international airport in a dense urban area. Just a theory and I have no evidence.

Anyhow, carry on with the poll...

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

I think time to solo and time to PPL are effected more by where the pilot trained rather than when. Those that learned in the boondocks likely are good to go faster than those that learn at an international airport in a dense urban area.

I suspect that those that have spent significant time manipulating the controls while flying with family (including three point and wheel landings, hood time, slips, stalls, cross countries, and other fun things) are likely to solo with less time logged than someone who has never been in a small airplane before. It could be that the low hours logged person may actually have spent many more hours stick wiggling than someone who starts out with an instructor logging from day 1, but the book won't show it.

Then there is the airplane - something dirt simple like a Cessna 120 is going to be easier than something with complected radios, flaps, mixture control, and all that kind of stuff too.

 

[Soldier64]

I was able to solo an airplane in 3.7 hours and PPL in 21.7 in 2013 flying a C-172.

The only caveat to this is I was already a military RW aviator with just north of 900 hours before I touched an airplane in my life.

 

[winrose46]

Back in 1979 I solo'ed in 8 hours, got my private at 43 hours. As a CFI for more than 30 years, I have solo'ed student pilots in 6 hours and all the way up to more than 70 hours. I have not noticed any difference in my solo time over the years; however, the time to private I believe has increased due to a decreased frequency of student flights per month. I have had several whom I have solo'ed and then I need to recheck their flight status because they had not flown in a month.

 

[flytime]

OP here. As the discussion progresses beyond just the numbers, this is turning into a much more interesting thread. Thanks to all for your input!

Having gone through the flight training process just recently, there are a few things that I noticed that affected the hours it took me to complete in ways that were a little surprising.

First of all, my age. I am 48. My instructors were all half my age or less, and having grown up around airplanes they all got the impression that my knowledge of aircraft and flying, if not my skills, were comparatively high. But I never acted to them like a know-it-all. I was humble and appreciative of their unique skills and knowledge. I'm certain that the mutual respect that formed between us contributed to a quick sign-off. Younger students probably have more to prove with respect to the maturity it takes to safely operate an aircraft, and I'm certain CFI's take this into account, either consciously or subconsciously.

Another thing that helped me was the fact that I had 3 instructors over the course of my 46 hours. I stretched it out over 11 months, and in that amount of time instructors come and go. I'm sure that sounds counter-intuitive that such circumstances would actually decrease the amount of time to get signed off, but each new instructor that I had was told by the previous one that I was a good student with pretty good skills, that I was taking the process seriously, and that I had a good handle on what I still needed to learn. And with each successive instructor, I let them know that my goal was to finish as cheaply as possible ($135/hour for a 172 plus $65/hour for an instructor really adds up fast!). Through this process of being handed from one new instructor to the next, I think my reputation somehow exceeded my actual abilities

And in fact, when I finally got to the checkride, I was asked to do a couple of things that I had not practiced with an instructor before. Oops! Debriefing with my final instructor, it sounds like he was under the assumption I had done some of those things with previous instructors, but that was not the case.

Anyway, I feel fortunate to finally have achieved the life-long goal of getting a pilot's license. And I am under no illusions that I have learned all I have to learn, now or ever. My flight school did a great job of getting me to this point, but the learning process never ends.

 

[Dav8or]

I suspect that those that have spent significant time manipulating the controls while flying with family (including three point and wheel landings, hood time, slips, stalls, cross countries, and other fun things) are likely to solo with less time logged than someone who has never been in a small airplane before. It could be that the low hours logged person may actually have spent many more hours stick wiggling than someone who starts out with an instructor logging from day 1, but the book won't show it.

Good point. I tend to forget that there are lots of pilots where their other family members, uncles, aunts, grand parents and friends are already pilots and have their own planes. I forget that there are actually kids that grow up in planes and at the airport. I tend to think most pilot starts are like I was. First time inside a piston airplane was lesson one on day one.

Now that I think of it, I'm not sure if I'm the majority, or minority?

 

[flytime]

Good point. I tend to forget that there are lots of pilots where their other family members, uncles, aunts, grand parents and friends are already pilots and have their own planes. I forget that there are actually kids that grow up in planes and at the airport. I tend to think most pilot starts are like I was. First time inside a piston airplane was lesson one on day one.

Now that I think of it, I'm not sure if I'm the majority, or minority?

I grew up around airplanes, but didn't actually get to fly much. Both of my parents were pilots, but they gave up flying for raising kids. We still went to airshows all the time, and I leaned plenty about airplanes even without flying. As an adult I've flown with my brothers who are pilots on many occasions. That gave me experience that doesn't count in the logbook, but it definitely makes it easier to learn.

 

[jordane93]

Good point. I tend to forget that there are lots of pilots where their other family members, uncles, aunts, grand parents and friends are already pilots and have their own planes. I forget that there are actually kids that grow up in planes and at the airport. I tend to think most pilot starts are like I was. First time inside a piston airplane was lesson one on day one.

Now that I think of it, I'm not sure if I'm the majority, or minority?

I grew up around aviation as well. My dad is an airline pilot/CFI and would take my siblings and I up and do some stalls, spins, and other maneuvers to freak us out! My brother has about 10 hrs logged with my dad but never wanted to make a career out of it. I didn't really catch the bug until my first real lesson when I was a junior in HS. I knew immediately I wanted to do this for a living.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Essentially the best answer to your question is: The milestones happen when they are ready to happen.

Sometimes...

Sometimes not. http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20020917X02947&key=1

 

[Bonchie]

According to the OP's first post, he is trying to find out if it takes more hours to get a PPL now, then it did in the old days. So he is "polling" people here by asking to post their hours and then the year they did it in.

Here is what he said-



The problem is, historically, pilots and the general public have always praised a low time to solo and low time to pass the PPL test because it is supposed to be an indicator of natural piloting skills. The poll is not anonymous, so those that took a long time to solo, or get their ticket, keep their mouth shut (except AP) and those that did it in record time post up fast. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if we were to find out that some make up the numbers just to be one of the cool kids.

I think the results of this "poll" so far bear this out. The FAA believes the average time to PPL is between 60-75 hours, but where are these average pilots in this thread and where are these below average pilots that took 100 hours? (except AP) Are the pilots that post on POA really just that good?

I think time to solo and time to PPL are effected more by where the pilot trained rather than when. Those that learned in the boondocks likely are good to go faster than those that learn at an international airport in a dense urban area. Just a theory and I have no evidence.

Anyhow, carry on with the poll...

I think many of those that take longer probably do so because they don't fly often enough during their training. How many people post on here that they are flying once a week or less on the training forum? Plenty.

I couldn't imagine someone flying three times a week really needing 65 hours to be ready for the check ride. But what the heck do I know.

 

[Bob Noel]

Solo: 8 hours
checkride: 48 hours

(it's not race)

I had great access to the planes and my CFI. I flew as much as 4 times in a week.

 

[Silvaire]

...The problem is, historically, pilots and the general public have always praised a low time to solo and low time to pass the PPL test because it is supposed to be an indicator of natural piloting skills. The poll is not anonymous, so those that took a long time to solo, or get their ticket, keep their mouth shut (except AP) ...

Okay I get you now, valid point.

 

[Jim Logajan]

I counted 29 posts that contained an answer to the question posed in the thread subject line.[1]

The average time to a passed check ride for the samples was 67.9 hours. Standard deviation was 59.5 hours.(!)

There were three posts with 100 or more hours listed (100, 300, and 250) and when I removed those the average was 50.7 hours with a standard deviation of 11.7.

Since the FAA says the average is actually around 75 hours[2] the poll does indeed suffer very strongly from self-selection bias.

[1] 46 100 41.7 41.2 52 64 57.5 78 42.5 46 42 62 69 40 40 36 58 52 300 56 40 40 72 44 42 250 65 43 48

[2] http://www.faa.gov/pilots/become/deaf_pilot/training/

 

[Silvaire]

How come this wasn't posted as a POLL?

 

[flytime]

How come this wasn't posted as a POLL?

Because the OP is a noob

 

[JoshH]

Data:
Year: 1990
Primary airport: KLEB (rural but towered - no ground delays of significance)
Hours before solo: 13.1
Landings before solo: 73 [1]
Hours before sent for PPL checkride: 56.3
Landings before sent for PPL checkride: 241 [1]
CFIs involved in training: 1
Aircraft types involves in trainging: 1 (C-152)
Time between first lesson and checkride: slightly less than 4 months

Other info:
Aviation experience beforehand: little to none - a ride or two in a Cessna with a friend.
Navigation experience beforehand: (Only mentioning because it means I had an easy time with this aspect of training, back before the days of GPS) Experienced with RDF/LORAN/ded reckoning/celestial navigation from sailing. Knew VOR and NDB concepts from subLOGIC FS2 on the Apple ][+ (I won't count 'simulator' experience in terms otherwise, except maybe it sparked my aviation interest).
Training was 2-3 times a week - I generally believe that progress goes faster when one can train often. Anybody interested in keeping costs down should pay particular attention to this unscientific recommendation.
I likely would have had a few fewer hours before checkride (by "few" I mean 2-3) but weather caused one cancelled checkride.
Checkride was at a different airport (KMHT), so technically I had one more landing and ~1 more hour before starting the checkride.
I was a college student at the time, so scheduling a few lessons per week in the summer/fall in New Hampshire was easy.

[1] because my logbook shows 1 landing each for the first two flights but I'm pretty sure the CFI was really doing that. And looking a bit closer it was probably ~6 landings by the CFI - or with the CFI partially working the controls - before I see a discussion of touch+goes. Somewhere between 60-70 landings is probably the relevant number here before solo, in case it matters. Similarly for "before sent for checkride" but obviously a difference of a few landings in a sample size of 241 is even less interesting.

 

[Silvaire]

Because the OP is a noob

LoL as each and every one one of us has unavoidably been at one time

 

[Henning]

15 solo
40 PP ride
11 weeks
1991-1992
KLGB Long Beach CA

 

[flytime]

Here's some advice that I heard from multiple people before I started my flight training, including my brother who is a CFII and ATP....that I didn't end up following:

1) get your ground school and written test completed and out of the way early so you can focus on flying
2) fly as much as you can, ideally 3 or 4 days per week.
3) don't take long breaks from flying during training to avoid having to re-learn stuff

I think this is all good advice, but between budgetary constraints and time commitments for work and family, I did things a little differently:

1) I did fly frequently up to the point of solo, probably 2 to 3 lessons per week, but after that I slowed my pace to 1 to 3 flights per month, alternating between solo and instructed flight.
2) I had every intention of knocking out the online ground school and written test quickly, but it just didn't happen. But having the online coursework to keep me thinking about flying even when I wasn't flying all that much helped me keep my head in the process.
3) I did have several breaks of up to 3 weeks due to weather and life. It didn't seem to have that much impact. But not a day went by that I wasn't thinking about my next flight, and most importantly visualizing how to fly the plane better than the flight before.
4) Stretching the training out over 11 months allowed me to have flight training in all 4 seasons, which is obviously good. And I think my final instructor was genuinely surprised that I only had 46 hours when he signed me off after having seen me around the flight school for 11 months. With a dozen or more students at a time, he wasn't tracking my logbook so much as my progress.