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Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 09:13:09 -0600
From: Snowbird <snbird@ibm.net>
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Jared Ruplinger wrote:
 
> After seeing a number of posts on the subject I was led to wonder...
> What is the  longest, shortest, and most common times for all of us on
> the group before solo?

This is a frequently asked question.  We really oughtta have a FAQ.

There is no national statistic kept on "hours to solo".  

The fact that national average "hrs to PPL" is somewhere in mid-sixties
suggests to me that hrs to solo averages somewhere in the 20 hr range.
I think this is really a bimodal distribution between people who
solo in around 15-18 hrs and people who solo in 25 hrs or so.  Note
this is my opinion, not a fact.

Shortest I've heard is 5-7 hrs.  Usually these are people who have
substantial unlogged flight experience, but not all people with 
substantial unlogged flight experience solo this quickly.  This is
the absolute minimum time required to review all of the material
which should be covered per Pt. 61, and then practice landings a
couple of sessions.

Longest I've heard of is a fellow who used to post on this newsgroup.
75 hrs.  He had a perfectionist CFI and was flying that CFI's
taildragger. 
He changed CFIs and soloed shortly thereafter.

Someone offered to compile statistics for rec.aviation.student,
and collected a bunch of responses, but I never saw a follow up
post.

Factors affecting time to solo will include:
1) complexity of airspace where you fly (in or adjacent to class B etc)
2) towered or non-towered field
3) standards of CFI: some solo a student who is "safe on a calm day
   at his home airport" others wait until the student is basically
   ready to practice solo maneuvers and fly cross countries
4) personal aptitude of CFI as teacher
5) how often student flies
6) personal aptitude of student
7) attitude of student and effort put forth

NB: if you want to guess how long it might take you to solo, best
source of info is your CFI and other students at your home field.

Hope this helps,
Snowbird

