going solo
I'm increasingly forming an opinion that going solo so early on is detrimental to good training. Too much pressure onto the student who will be lacking in knowledge and who will only know that which it is required within the parameters of the first solo flight. Yet, once solo, the student will be required to make decisions of the fully trained PPL holder, we just hope that nothing untoward occurs. The only arguement that supports the early solo - put to me as yet, is that going solo is a great confidence booster and so it is.
However, to go solo at the end of the full syllabus surely will provide a much better platform and act to consolidate all the skills learned. Without the unavoidable need in many to match peers a lot more will be achieved to a higher standard throughout the course of training. Nothing more depressing for the student to go round and round the circuit and failing. We more and more take students out of the circuit where we see insufficient progress and move on through the syllabus to great effect. Coming back to consider solo with a student much more mentally prepared and with greater experience to handle situations that arise, particularly in our case, operating at a fully controlled aerodrome, where we do not have control on the circuit environment during student solo's.