What do you see in a student before you let him/her go solo?

[perceval]

no worries

am gonna had my grain of salt . As a student it took me 22 hours for various reasons to go solo (european weather, finances , shyness...) , as an instructor I have seen it all , as far as number of hours are concerned .first of all there''s the question of where and under which regs you are learning , some are more demanding than others (FAA requires a list of about 15 topics to be covered before you can even think of sending anybody solo , some other places just require basic handling and t/o ldg competency...) , then personnally i like my students to have an idea about most emergencies that could affect him in the circuit (once again comes the question of where ,busy airport or small strip with zero traffic ) , stall training and various mishap during landin recoveries , then decision making (Go around , Traffic avoidance and Think about those atc instructions -am working at a field where we have loads of trainee controllers ) , finally those three safe landings and the personnal confidence and desire to go . So , it takes anything between 15 and 30 hours to get there and it does not predict much about your future career .Keep it up .