There used to be a minimum requirement of 8 hours dual before solo. That requirement was dumped in the last version of AO 60. I don't know if the new CARs have a minimum again.
I know of ex-ultralight pilots who soloed C152s in less than 5 hours. For zero-zero students, the average is still around 12 hours before first solo.
In the old regulations, the student needed at least 3 hours solo in the local area before wandering about by himself.
I once released a very apt student on his first solo cross-country after just one dual cross-country lesson. On the return leg of that lesson, I asked him, "You think you can go back there tomorrow by yourself?"
His answer was an immediate and resounding, "YES!"
If he had hesitated for even a millisecond, I would not have let him go.
So the student pilot flew from Manila to Mamburao and back all by his lonesome self. All the students of the school next door stayed late to watch him come back. Most of them were completing their CPL courses and none of them had ever flown "solo cross-country" without a "safety pilot" nursing them from the right seat. Every one on the ramp that afternoon could see the soloist's smile from 100 meters away as he taxied in.
In the end, letting a student fly by himself is a judgment call for the instructor. So far, every one of my students has come back with the airplane and himself in one piece.
Schools that do not permit real solo cross-countries are not only robbing their students of their money, they're also robbing them of one of the greatest experiences a pilot can ever have.
Last edited by M 0.78; 17th Oct 2009 at 06:19.