FP - I'm a little surprised that a Silver C holder took 38 hours to complete the JAR-FCL PPL. That's no reflection on your skills, but 5 years ago you would only have needed about 10 hours plus the NFT/GFT for a UK PPL if I recall correctly. Perhaps you were being trained to a somewhat 'gold standard' rather than a 'bare minimum' standard - but no doubt you have benefitted (apart from financially!) as a result? Some schools will train up to their own standards, others down to the base level - and regrettably it'll be a case of people 'paying their money and taking their choice'. But that's what industry said that they wanted, so that's what we've delivered - and the CAA are happy with it.
I have always viewed the idea of 32 hours plus NPPL NST and GST as very optimistic; originally it would have been even less and some of us thought that the original proposals would have been tantamount to fraud. But 32 plus tests was the absolute minimum that we were all happy with - so if someone can complete their NPPL in that time, then good for them!
I note that in 1968 it took me 20:20 dual and 14:40 solo between 25 Mar and 19 Apr to obtain my UK PPL - but there was no NFT and 3:30 of that was on my qualifying cross-country (which was the only time I'd ever landed away from my home aerodrome!). I had a (very) few gliding hours, plus A and B certificates to my name before then - and that was it! The NPPL should take roughly the same time to complete for someone reasonably capable on a full time course, but most will very probably take rather longer.
Last edited by BEagle; 26th August 2002 at 15:42.