Average time to solo a student

15 starts here. Then three months later off doing intentional cross country. And 42 years more it's still damn fun. Hope the new inductee goes crazy with soaring too.

My 6th launch was my first solo at Dillingham Field, HI (plenty of
military, airline, GA experience).Â* Thirty-two years later, and on my
7th glider, I'm still the guy who launches first.Â* Who cares if I don't
stay up?Â* I'll launch again and have a great day.Â* Too bad I've only got
another 10-15 years left to fly solo...

On 6/4/2018 11:16 PM, Steve Koerner wrote:
15 starts here. Then three months later off doing intentional cross country. And 42 years more it's still damn fun. Hope the new inductee goes crazy with soaring too.

--
Dan, 5J

On Tuesday, June 5, 2018 at 7:26:22 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
My 6th launch was my first solo at Dillingham Field, HI (plenty of
military, airline, GA experience).Â* Thirty-two years later, and on my
7th glider, I'm still the guy who launches first.Â* Who cares if I don't
stay up?Â* I'll launch again and have a great day.Â* Too bad I've only got
another 10-15 years left to fly solo...

On 6/4/2018 11:16 PM, Steve Koerner wrote:
15 starts here. Then three months later off doing intentional cross country. And 42 years more it's still damn fun. Hope the new inductee goes crazy with soaring too.

--
Dan, 5J

Thanks for all the info & opinions. The info is very useful. Here's additional info.

The student was early thirties & had already completed the King PP ground school. He was very motivated. It was all aero tows, he flew three intense weekends. He had 21 flights when I soloed him & around 9 total hours. We had good lift so were able to do many stalls, steep spirals, etc.

Being that we are a commercial operation we can do accelerated training.

That is terrific for ab initio!

On 6/5/2018 9:41 PM, wrote:
On Tuesday, June 5, 2018 at 7:26:22 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
My 6th launch was my first solo at Dillingham Field, HI (plenty of
military, airline, GA experience).Â* Thirty-two years later, and on my
7th glider, I'm still the guy who launches first.Â* Who cares if I don't
stay up?Â* I'll launch again and have a great day.Â* Too bad I've only got
another 10-15 years left to fly solo...

On 6/4/2018 11:16 PM, Steve Koerner wrote:
15 starts here. Then three months later off doing intentional cross country. And 42 years more it's still damn fun. Hope the new inductee goes crazy with soaring too.
--
Dan, 5J
Thanks for all the info & opinions. The info is very useful. Here's additional info.

The student was early thirties & had already completed the King PP ground school. He was very motivated. It was all aero tows, he flew three intense weekends. He had 21 flights when I soloed him & around 9 total hours. We had good lift so were able to do many stalls, steep spirals, etc.

Being that we are a commercial operation we can do accelerated training.

--
Dan, 5J

On Sunday, June 3, 2018 at 8:43:58 PM UTC-7, wrote:
I'm a very experienced power pilot CFI & have soloed hundreds of airplane student pilots over the years. That said, I'm not as experienced as a CFIG.

I soloed a new student this weekend. He flew three solo flights & did a spectacular job. He has no former flying experience so he wasn't the typical add-on pilot that I'm usually teaching.

On line it appears in several places that the average time to solo a glider is around 40 flights. Is they information accurate? My student doesn't have nearly that many flights.

Opinions?

On Sunday, June 3, 2018 at 8:43:58 PM UTC-7, wrote:
I'm a very experienced power pilot CFI & have soloed hundreds of airplane student pilots over the years. That said, I'm not as experienced as a CFIG.

I soloed a new student this weekend. He flew three solo flights & did a spectacular job. He has no former flying experience so he wasn't the typical add-on pilot that I'm usually teaching.

On line it appears in several places that the average time to solo a glider is around 40 flights. Is they information accurate? My student doesn't have nearly that many flights.

Opinions?
I soloed on my 20th flight with zero previous flying experience. Credit this to having 3 to 4 flights a day for 6 flying days over a 5 week period.