First Solo and Total Hours Flown

On 2006-12-01 12:41:06 -0700, "Patrick" said:


I dont know why it would take over 30 hours to solo, and some as many
as 70? I soloed at 14 hours, but I hear the average is 20.

Then you aren't paying attention. How stupid and/or annoying.

Instructors are a huge part of successful flight training. I was about
40 hours at solo time, and on my third instructor.

I'm now a commercial inst/multi rated pilot approaching 500 hours.

The number of hours it takes you is specific to you, and no one else.
Averaging hours it takes to solo and inviting a comparison to the
pilot's skill is like averaging breast size and making an inference
about a woman's intelligence based on it.

On 2006-11-30 19:31:42 -0700, Bob Noel
said:

In article ,
"Peter Duniho" wrote:

As you correctly point out, the bulk of being a pilot has to do with
judgment and factual knowledge, rather than motor skills (especially
with current aircraft design...this wasn't always true, IMHO). And
frankly, not everyone is capable of exercising the judgment, nor of
learning the factual knowledge, required to be a pilot.

A coworker was at something like 30 hours before she broke off her training.
She just couldn't get the hang of landing the airplane. She still
wants to fly, and will likely try again sometime in the future. Though
I'm not a CFI, I still want to say that I don't think her problem is
judgement or motor skills (unless somehow she is different in the
airplane than on the ground). When she starts
her training again and gets to solo will be a treat.

I agree. Her problem is she needs a good instructor if her only issue
was not getting a feeling for landings.

I didn't solo til 40 hours (was about 2 years ago now) and that was my
exact issue, landings freaked my beak and the instructor(s) didn't care
or know enough to help.

At almost 500 hours now and commercial multi rated I've decided to do
AOPA's Project Pilot to help people avoid some of the issues I had with
learning to fly. I feel that poor quality of instruction stifles more
potential pilots than anything.

On 2006-11-30 19:26:38 -0700, "karl gruber" said:

If someone said they took 75 hours for solo, I will start by first
asking questions about their instructor.


I'd start asking questions about their therapist. 75 hours is a waste
of everyone's time.

Some people just don't cut it. Easy to blame the instructor, but that's
just trying rationalize their own lack of ability.


Karl

Karl makes a stupid generalized statement. Instructors have more
influence over student success than you realize Karl.

On 2006-11-30 12:37:17 -0700, "george" said:


Greengears wrote:

Every pilot out there will never forget their first Solo. But there has
always been this nagging questions as to should there be a minimum
amount of hours flown before a pilot can be allowed to Solo. I have
seen pilots solo in as little as 9 hours and as high as 75 hours.
I know most of you will say that it should vary from pilot to pilot.
But should there be a minimum amount of hours flown?

It should be left to the discretion of the instructor,
I soloed under 5 hours and know of others who were sent off at 3
hours...
If any-one takes more than 20 hours to solo they should take another
look at becoming a pilot.. IMHO

Wrong.

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
Regarding the WW2 pilot almost 4 hour solo...

I'm not judging your piloting skills... the point of a minimum time in
my honest oppinion to to give a person familiarity with his/her
surroundings (like when you first drove a car and needed some time to
figure things out), you (I'm assuming you're the fighter pilot) was
brilliant at military airfield procedures, but probably (if you were at
a slightly busy airport) would have benefited a bit from familiarity
with what is going on around you.

PLEASE do not confuse familiarity with ability.


And if you are already familier, why would you need more hours logged?

Again. WHY? Is there a REAL problem with premature solo's that you are aware
of? Or is this just "What if a flight instructor doesn't do his/her job?"
speculation?

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

Military operations verus civilian operations... kind of different.

Frankly... the solo should be the last thing any student is thinking
of... it should take place after a person is familiar with flight and
is able to safely conduct it.

Peter Duniho schrieb:

But it disproves your claim that I made a definition.

It does no such thing.

Yes, it does.

I am so arrogant to claim that I have yet to meet somebody who lacks
discipline when doing something he's really interested in.

That has nothing to do with your reply to MY comment about people who DO
have interest not having the necessary discipline.

My point was that those people obviously don't have enough interest,
even if they themselves think so.

Shall we continue to talk in a circle or just stop here?

Stefan

Karl makes a stupid generalized statement. Instructors have more influence
over student success than you realize Karl.


It can't be a generalized statement because the "general" student solos
after vastly fewer hours. They should be aggressively weeded out way before
70 hr.

Again, not everyone is cut out to be a pilot. And a beginner, like you at
500 hrs, has little experience to back up your statements. How many students
have YOU soloed?

Karl

"Stefan" wrote in message
. ..
But it disproves your claim that I made a definition.

It does no such thing.

Yes, it does.

No, it does not. Quoting one piece of text has nothing to do with whether
something else you wrote does something else.

That has nothing to do with your reply to MY comment about people who DO
have interest not having the necessary discipline.

My point was that those people obviously don't have enough interest, even
if they themselves think so.

The only people you are qualified to comment on are those people with whom
you have personal experience. And in fact, by your own admission, those are
the only people to whom you refer. Commenting on those people has
absolutely no relevance to the more general statement I made, nor does it in
any refute it.

Shall we continue to talk in a circle or just stop here?

If the best you can manage is simple contradiction, I'd say the sooner you
give up, the better. Your call.

Pete

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
When I learned
to fly I had a finite amount of money that could be devoted to the
endeavor, setting in an account that I set up specifically for the
purpose of learning to fly.

When that money was gone, I knew my training would be finished --
certificate or not. I had two little kids, a house, and a wife working
part-time so that she could raise our kids. There was NO margin for
error.

I had a certain amount set aside to get me started too, the plan being that
whilst I was working through he initial amount, I could be saving for the
rest. Unfortunately, just before I was about to start, I had to spend almost
60% of the allocated funds on replacing my car. This meant I burned through
my remaining allocation VERY quickly. I'm now at 6.5 hours, and am now
forced to have 30 minute lessons once a week. I started with 1 hour lessons
once a week. My instructor said that once things 'clicked' with me, which it
did for me at around 3 hours, I could space out the lessons a bit more if my
funds required it, and that I shouldn't go backwards. She was right. Half an
hour a week sees me do 3 to 4 circuits, and no sign of 'unlearning' anything
from the previous week. If the weather is bad on the weekend I'm flying, I
just do a full hour the next week. If I need an hour to learn a particular
aspect, she'll tell me, and I'll skip a week to allow the funds to cover a
full hour. I reakon I'll be solo next week too if the conditions are right
and I don't have to post pone to the following weekend.
Oz Lander