1952 PPL. 30 hrs. 2002 PPL 45 hrs. why?

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Why does it take twice the amount of flying hours to get a PPL today then it did fifty years ago?

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:) The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no. :)

[john_tullamarine]

.. and, from what I hear in this neck of the woods, one could extend the question to encompass the strange increase in typical time to go solo ... in the mid 60s, with a reasonable application and flying frequency, 5-10 hours was the normal ... not so now ....

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Yeh..John...

And we flew tailwheel airplanes...Hmmmmmmm.

And before someone starts the nav. and radio scenario we used radio ranges for navigating and our ADF's were manual loop rather than automatic pointing...Hhmmmmmmm.

And the exams were hand written answers, no chance to guess the multiple choice answers.

Maybe we can get some good exchange of ideas on this one aye John???

. .By the way the average timt to get a PPL in Canada is 75 hours. ( And most of them are marginal at best in their flying skills. ). .................

:) The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no. :)

[yxcapt]

I was just discussing this subject yesterday. A lot of it has to do with traffic. Close to Chicago and also around the Salt Lake area, it takes about 35 to 40 min. from engine start to the practice area.

I moved to a smaller airport 60 miles away from ORD. Start to the practice area runs from 15 to 20 min on a slow day to 35 to 40 on a busy day.

That chews up most of the added time. Even though 40 hours is still in the regs, the feds kept adding requirement. Night dual cross countrys, 3 hours instrument. Plus some of the PTS requirements have changed, requiring a little more practice.

The solo times have gone up slightly. Again I blame the the traffic and added requirements. I teach in gliders and interestingly enough the time for solo has not gone up. No taxi time, no runup, no radios and a lot less traffic.

John & Cat, do you have a military flying back ground?

[Chuck Ellsworth]

I was turned down by the military for aircrew, shure wish I could have had the chance to fly for them but alas I did not meet their size requirements I was not big enough. I should have been a jockey.

I started working at the airport when I was 15 and my first job flying was aerial application.

Aerial app. was the best job, night courrier was the worst. Airlines was boring, Corporate was no real time for famiy. Bush flying was good. Helicopters were great. Firebombing was great. I really enjoy what I do now, flying rich peoples playtoys and see the world with good pay.

By the way Movie flying is the best for pay and something really different.

When the Merimax movie "Below " is released this spring go see it, there is some superb PBY flying shots in the movie, we open it with the PBY flying over the North Sea, it is a WW2 movie about a submarine, the PBY is also part of the movie.

............. . :) The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no. :)