16 hours to solo
I am a professional flight instructor and would say that 1st solo is somewhat overrated in its importance.Do not underestimate the trips your writer talks aboutvalue.When at an early stage in your instructor takes you toa satellite field that's quieter if he does it properly heis already starting to build your navigation skills.You may not solo a 5 hours or whatever the magic number you think is correct but when you do thelong cross country which to me is the real solo youare much more confident and prepared.I adopt this method in training PPL's and also try andpair two studebts if I can so that they see a lot of demostwice.The do not normally take any longer that the minimumhours on an intensive course.In the UK I have heard of the PPL taking as much as 90 hours to complete.There is a saying : The are no free lunches.If an operator in Florida is pitching really low pricesyou are best to go and view the school before youcommit to them.Good aircraft normally will cost you more.I don't know why everybody is obssesed with Floridaanyway.I went to Skymates in Arlington Texas they have areally good fleet of C172.s.A friendly bunch too.Also if you can pay for a G1000equiped one for your Navigation excercises.Another one Sun aviation in Lantana Florida.If you were going to buy a car would you buyit without a test drive and without looking at it.A PPL is a big investment and you can easilyswap an FAA Private for a JAA PPL,Go to your chosen flight school and book anintroductory flight look around at the aircraft fleet.Don't rush off try to talk to some of the students that are already there.If you want to make life hard for the bad eggs in the businessyou must be astute as with any purchase and look beforeyou leap!!!Then you will not have to bitch about it here later