I went solo at 17 hours... thats the figure i get when i take out a bunch of flights i took with the instructor just for the hell of it, like local fly-outs etc with the club, or ones just to get up as the weather wasn't good enough for much else...
but all that put in it'd be 20 hours...
Theres no decent "average" to be honest... people come out with 8 hours etc, but they forget to mention that they probably did gliding before, loads of UAS, or air cadets freebies etc. Or were in the military and it was condensed in.
Frequency of flying is also a BIG factor. I had month gaps between lessons on more than one occasion just due to weather alone.
To be honest though, if you were up there after just 8 hours flight, there would surely be things you couldn't handle. How can that whole pre-solo syllabus be put into just 8 hours anyway?
Last edited by 17thhour; 5th Feb 2008 at 15:49.