SPL - need advice

[SV_741_India_Bravo]

Hi all.
I just started training near Houston, TX.

My instructor was alright at first......his previous students told me I should consider changing, but I was ok at first.....Since last week when I had logged about 20 hours - including 3.8 hour local flight stretches at ONE time - he has been telling me I am near getting my solo, only needed work on my landings.
Its been a week now and he has had me fly 31.5 hrs total, including 4 hours in 20 kt gusts for "landing training". This happened as I said "its gusting 20 knots lets not fly, and he came up with no, no, we will f ly"
every time he comes up with you were slightly off the centerline (which is less than 2 feet) otherwise I would sign you off. Once I hear this I totally give up trying to do anything and end up wasting my time. Since he has been doing this I dont feel like flying at all and am skipping days off from school....
I had the chief talk to him about me, and now he says you will take at least another week and 40 or 50 hours to get the solo done????

while I am ready to work harder, I am sure enough that I am not learning anything new from him....if I only need more practice how about I practice with some other instructor?

[Shed Dog Tosser]

Get a new instructor, if they wont give you one, go to another flying school.

[rep]

sounds like a money grabbing flying school!

[Konev]

nothing wrong with 20 knots, more you do it the better.

but the amount of hours you have done before going solo is absurd.

[Lasiorhinus]

I must not feed the troll.
I must not feed the troll.
I must not feed the troll.
I must not feed the troll.
I must not feed the troll.

[capt787]

i suggest you should talk to your chief/senior instructor before doing anything.

from your case, it sounds to me like either your instructors teaching method does not suit your way of learning, or your instructor is being extra 'safe'.

maybe its wise to take a break from circuit lesson, go out to the training area and do couple hours of airwork exercise and try the solo check again in couple of days.

for a new pilot, circuit training can be discouraging as you see all your mates go solo before you do. however its important to keep your head up and remember flying is your dream and you would do everything to make it happen. and don't forget an ice cold beer in the evening will always cool you down after a long and disappoint day of training :}

[takeonme]

Tell him to get stuffed.

Find out where he lives and egg his house.

[gas-chamber]

If'n you don't solo in 15 hours, either you have a learning problem, or your instructor has a teaching problem, or your school has an ethical problem.
In the days when all true training airplanes had the third wheel at the back end, 8 to 10 hours was the norm to solo; 12 was for below average/slow learners. At 15 hours if you had not gone solo, the honest instructors - who were mostly ex-air force - would have discreetly suggested you seek an alternative career.
Maybe taildraggers were easier to fly back then? I think not, So, nowadays there's a bit more to learn about radio etc, but mostly the fad for delaying first solo seems to be about instructors who need to take the extra money for dual. Again, in the good old days there was only one hourly rate for learning to fly. Dual or solo rates did not come into the equation. Presumably the schools had averaged it all out so that their instructors got a weekly wage rather than an hourly rate.

[Peter Fanelli]

Probably a supply and demand thing, as long as we pay $135.00 a barrel for oil, you'll pay and pay and pay for your flying training.