How long does it take to get a PPL? That rather depends on how much time you can devote to it! I'm not best qualified to say, having neither held one nor taught the syllabus, but I believe the course is around 45 hours. If you have the time, you could do it in a month to six weeks! More practically, doing it in your spare time, it's likely to take you 6 months or so. However, Private Pilots is the forum to discuss the finer points of PPLs, not here on Wannabes.
As for hour building, you have to do some to qualify for the CPL. I appreciate you're hoping for a sponsorship, but remember they're few and far between! You may very well end up self-sponsoring, like most of the Wannabes here. In which case, I would advise every so often during the hour-building process you fly with an FI to make sure that bad habits don't creep in.
Scroggs
Virgin/Wannabes Moderator
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