time to solo (hours) = age (years) - 10
I went solo in 12 hours at a an age of 41. Ain't I good ?
No, I ain't. I had flown sailplanes and simulators and was generally interested in machinery, airplanes and aviation, a real geek if you like.
The thing is that with age, people get slower at learning both physically and mentally. However, it is a known fact that people are (genetically ?) different in terms of their ability to learn to control machinery like cars and airplanes. I know a person who took 100 driving lessons.
Also there's a motivation factor. A mate's wife was learning to fly at the same time as I. No luck. She wasn't really motivated, it was the mate who pressed her into it.
The odd thing is that my instructor found me capable of flying in IMC, including doing all normal maneuvers, for as long as there was gas in the tanks. I thank that the simming, and it has saved my life once. Started out with foggles where instructor after 30 mins instructed me to take them off. I did, we were in clouds and had been for 10 mins. Yes, illegal, he shouldn't have done that. Later we took a complete trip in IMC including ILS approaches. Anyhow, I strongly recommend PC simulators.
I've drifted way off the topic now....