Back to the original question!
I did my trial lesson in Feb '82 and got my PPL in Jul '83, so about 18 months and almost 60 hours. I was a shiftworker at the time but was only able to fly at weekends so there were unavailable days for that reason as well as the usual wx etc problems. It seemed about the right pace and I do like the idea of pacing it at a rate you'd expect to hire at, hadn't heard of that one before, excellent concept, well done tiger!
TheOddOne