I can't remember without looking at my logbook but it was somewhere in the region of 30 hours due to weather etc. I could have done it sooner but on the first time of asking it was a bit blustery and I didn't feel happy so declined. My mind was not on the job fully that day.
I flew just on weekends and then had to miss 3 months with bad weather at the beginning of 2002 so I had to have a couple of hours refresher when I started again. Have to admit I found the landing the hardest. I wasn't too worried about the hours I was taking, just in getting it on the deck safely. Why be macho and try too soon, nothing to gain only an early grave.
Like Leclairage I had to know EFATO plus stall recovery inside out as well as mastering glide approaches, flapless approaches and low level circuits before I could go solo. My first 10 hours covered 8 different instructors which I wasn't happy about as they all look for different things. Once I got settled with one instructor life was easier.
By the time I finally did my first solo I had already completed my 3 dual Nav flights. Once I had gone solo I was straight into my solo nav flights, doing all my solo at the very end of the course.
One point I think needs to be remembered is the airfield people train at and the instructors. I had a 500m narrow grass runway to aim for, not a 2000+m lump of tarmac like you get at East Midlands. When I did my QXC into there I couldn't miss and if I got it a bit wrong (which I didn't) knew I had time to correct it.
That said - congrats to those that did it quickly. Whether you take 5 hours or 50 hours to first solo - at the end of the course we are all pilots.
