Originally Posted by
Big Pistons Forever
This is because I came to understand the importance of properly teaching the foundation flying skills before the student started into the circuit as well as wanting to make sure that no matter what happened on that first solo the student was well prepared.
Well said. Time to solo really is irrelevant and can become a distraction for students. Getting the basics right is the most important phase and will generally lead to the student completing with a good skills test pass in the shortest time.
As for fully preparing the student for the first solo, I couldn't agree more which is why all of our students practice a diversion and landaway before first solo. There's no guarantee that the airfield will stay open once they have taken off.