I'm wondering how long it takes most people to solo. My wife has started flying lessons in a 152 and her instructor is telling her to expect between 20 to 30 hours. That seems kind of crazy to me. I soloed at the age of 16 in a J-3 with 11 hours and no prior flying experience. My wife has flown with me over 100hours in the 170 and has a pretty good idea of what's going on. I have her practice with me a lot in the airplane although she can't log the time since I'm not a CFI. 20 to 30 hours just doesn't seem right, what do you guys think?

15 hours or so here.

2 possibilities:
a) CFI is estimating high so the student won't feel discouraged if not soloing sooner, or upset at the extra cost of training.
b) CFI is judging your wife because she is female. if this is the case, find a new CFI. Plenty of great female pilots out there.

My two cents.

I soloed in 13 hours with no prior expirence. I think it depends on the person but even 20 hours seems high to me.
-Levi

Now days it takes longer, maybe because there more to know, or maybe because they are afraid of lawyers?? But this guy is taking you to the cleaners. Get a new instructor.

When I was 15, It took me a full year of 1/2 hour lessons to end up with 8 hours when I turned 16 and then I was soled.

Things have changed over the years. I, too, soloed in a short period of time (9 hours) and had my license in a total of 42 hours (including check ride). This was almost 40 years ago. Now there are so many aspects of flying that not only do you need to know but need to demonstrate before a good instructor will endorse a student to solo. Before all you needed to be able to do is go around the pattern to be endorsed to solo. After you soloed then you learned the other aspects of flying. Now there are the different maneuvers that need to be demonstrated, different knowledge of stall, recoveries, entry of patterns (controlled and uncontrolled airports), radio procedures etc., it goes on and on. All in all the time invested in this gaining of knowledge and skill is well worth the time and effort for the student and the instructor. It is not unreasonable for a student to aquire 20-25 hours of duel before solo.

Hawk

Robw there's a few additional pieces that a CFI will consider as well:

FREQUENTY: If she is only flying one day a week it will definately take longer, and a CFI knows this and again won't
want her to feel pressured in any way

AGE: We all learn faster when we're young - JohnG's statement of his time at 15 years old would be different
if started at 30 and different again if youre wife is 50. We know this to be true in all walks of life.

APTITUDE: I'm certainly not judging by saying this, but maybe she was a little slow to absorb something the CFI
felt was important at that time and he's 'judging' her? Stress of becoming PIC can be tough on people even if
she does have the skillset already to fly as a copilot safely.

THE RACE: there is NO race - it's a horrible measuring stick we use to compare eachother. Just ignore it ; if Paul
Claus told you it took him 25 hours to solo would you think less of him? I doubt it.

The real answer is don't worry about it, support her, tell her she's doing great, and give her the time and space she needs (she is a woman after all!) and don't worry about the money ; her safety and confidence as a solo pilot is far more important than worrying about $500-1000 in extra training and rental expense.

~CRAZEDpilot

My wife is 23 so I don't think age is too much of a factor yet. She is scheduled to fly 2-3 times per week plus she flys with me in the 170 1-2 times per week. When she flys with me I have her do everything except take off and landing. I take the controls short final and give them back once we are back in the air with a positive rate of climb (she follows me on the controls the whole time). I had her flying around the pattern last night and she is doing very well for someone who has less than 5 hours in their log book. I just can't imagine it taking her 30 hours to solo because realistically she will have 60 hours because of all the (unofficial) practice she gets in the 170. If it takes that long how long will it take to get her license? Flight training ain't cheap these days. I just don't want to be taken advantage of.

sounds like an exceptionally conservative estimate by the CFI - was he able to explain why he felt it would take that long? the basic goal of the solo is to get the thing in the air, around the pattern and back in one piece - important early step in training to set the hook, build confidence and generate some motivation to plow through the rest of the learning on the way to ticket.

i think i soloed in about 10 hrs - looking back on it i can't believe he turned me loose when he did. i didn't bend anything though so i must have had all the tools i needed.

I agree with that Vick. I'm confident she could go fly the pattern right now in a 152 and get it on the ground safely. The CFI stated that the 20 to 30 hours was the average there and 15 hours would be "accelerated".

that begs the question, what is he quoting as the average to finish the PP ticket? If she's flying a few times a week I wouldn't imagine it should take much over the 40 hr min. obviously it's not a race but no need to drag it out longer than necessary, after all it's just a "license to learn"

I think he said it was taking most people 60 hours.

I'm glad we are getting another female pilot in the ranks! Yea to her for working on it.
I have a story to tell you.
I got my license when i turned 17, soloed in 20 something hours and two instructors at the local FBO in Ann Arbor. Didn't learn anything the first 10 hours, flew with a guy trying to get time to move up. Got switched to the "old geezer" and loved him and the flying. By that time spins were not required, but we did them anyway. All my good habits are do to him. So carefully check out your instructor.

Another story. My daughter wanted to learn to fly. I took her with me to Andover Flying Academy with Damian DelGazo. I did the advanced bush tailwheel training and she flew the L-4. All of the instructors there were great and she was ready to solo in about 9 hours. We just had to go home or she would have done it. I am a CFI, but thought with the Mother/Daughter thing it would be difficult. We started at a plastic pilot center that ran her through 4 instructors before soloing her (read taking my $). It was ridiculous. They were not even going to solo her then. I took her up in the 172 for 1 hour and they soloed her the next day. She changed pilot centers 3 times. Took her over a year and she finally did it.

Nice story but you only had to tell me once! I wish there was a flight school around here that could teach her in a taildragger like an L-4 that would be great.

You're starting to describe what does seem abnormally long. Why not call him or pull him aside and ask him privately? Maybe he'll explain that hes is tentionally taking away the deadline stress, or you might verify your theory hes taking you for a ride - starving CFIs are widespread in this economy. Good luck let us know what he says..... -CRAZEDpilot

Rob,
I'm with Vick on this one...20-30 seems like a long time, especially given her experience with you. For me, it was 15 hrs about 10 years ago.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are separate sign-offs for initial solo and solo cross-country...being signed off for the first does not mean you are GTG on the second. Given that, I would totally expect her to solo around the pattern at what her CFI calls an "accelerated" pace. Then I would expect her to get a bunch more dual time before heading off on her cross country solo.

J

Yup, different signoffs. Plus you have to take a written before solo.
Also when you are signed of for solo cross country you have to land at the airports you were signed off for. Julia was doing her long cross country in the winter and decided that the runway was too snow covered for her experience and went to an alternate. I was told that was illegal. Seemed the safe and prudent thing to do however.

Wow, Pokette, when you poke it, YOU REALLY do POKE it!
....The 'send' click, that is....


lc

Nuts!

If we want to put the final nail in the coffin of general aviation....just keep telling students that they need 20 or 30 hours of dual prior to solo. All they have to be able to do is get the thing around the patch for two or three landings and maybe talk to ATC. It is really designed to be a confidence builder. Nothing else. After that little hop around the field then all the other stuff comes later.


I always told my students that the average was 10 hours more or less. Never had one go beyond 12 hours. Most were 8 to 10 hours. I did recommend that a couple of my students not continue to fly. One tired another instructor. Crashed and died on his second solo cross country flight. Anyone who needs more than 10 or 12 hours should either look for a different instructor, find another interest or both. Geeze I soloed in 7 1/2 hours at a controlled airport.....Hulman Field in Terre Haute, Indiana. Sure that was in 1966 but a Cessna flew then just as it flys now.....

bob(the dinosaur)

We were a bunch of teenagers in the mid 60s at a field in the middle 'o nowhere and we soloed typically 4-8 hours with lower #s being the norm in a 65 hp J-3 Cub. NORDO helped of course.
It was a different time and lawyers were scarce and 'risk' was a part of life........


lc

I think the time to solo might depend upon which gear legs the 170 is equipped with.