I agree with local Variation. His comments are a pretty good summary.
As for how long it takes to check out well I have a few comments on that.
1) It is not
your airplane that you are flying in, it belongs to someone else. As the owners they are entitled to demand what ever they want as a checkout. Don't like it, go else where or buy your own aircraft
2) My experience with doing checkouts is that the time required varies all over the map. However
most PPL's showed significant weaknesses in basic flying skills. A bit, to a lot, of extra time was required to address those skill deficits, in addition to showing the handling differences.
3) The people that complain the most about the length of the checkout were usually the worst pilots.
If I where doing the checkout with the OP then it would consist of about an hour on the ground doing a complete review of the POH with some W & B calculations, a few performance calculations and then a complete walk around with an emphasis on what in particular is prone to leaking/breaking/coming loose. We then sit in the cockpit and go over the normal and emergency checklist to get the pilot familiar with the cockpit and build some muscle memory.
The flight will review, steep turns, slow flight, departure and arrival stall scenarios, an in flight emergency that will develop into a PFL, and enough circuits to show take off and landing proficiency.
Total air time will be about an hour if there is good solid basic flying skills. If skills are not there then however long it takes. The current record was a guy who needed 10 hrs of additional dual before he was safe to take the airplane.
