oscarm wrote:
: HI Jack,

: Thanks for your respond. you went soloed after jsut spent 7 hours, wow
: thats a record so far i know. I dont think the program at my flying
: school is set up that way. But 7 hours is too low for me, I am not
: confident to do it in only 7 hours. I gave my self max of 13 hours, but
: 30 hours is seems way to much. Perhaps a $3000 budget is to low in
: california and i dont mind paying more as long as they dont take an
: advantage. 2 hours slow flight introduction i think that a little to
: much. You are right about Class E airspace, can be a disadvantage also.
: Thank you for your input, its really helps and I will defiinitely sign
: up with AOPA.

I'll agree with what's already been said.... RUN away from the school requiring 30 hours before solo. The funny thing
about earning the PPL is that the regulations look completely black and white... 10 hours of this, 3 hours of that, this many
dual cross countries, this many solo, etc... The point you need to realize is that these number are the established *minimums*
required for the license. The actual amount required is completely determined by how long it takes you to learn how to do
everything. Ten hours at a non-towered field for solo sounds pretty reasonable for most people, but some people might take
30 hours before they get the basics required for solo flight learned.

My suggestion is as others have suggested. Try finding another CFI in the area and a plane you you can rent they can
instruct in. My guess is that $3000 will be too low for learning in California no matter how you cut it. If you're looking
for ways to save money and flight time, try "double-dipping" the required hours. For instance, if you're going on a
cross-country, land at a towered field and do your 3 solo T&L there then. If you're on your last dual cross-country, see if
you can get some of the enroute time under the hood for instrument practice. Not everyone can absorb this much info so it may
not work for you, but it's a way to keep the hours down if you can.

-Cory

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* Cory Papenfuss, Ph.D., PPSEL-IA *
* Electrical Engineering *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
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