Due to money shortage when reaching 1 (approx. 10 hrs) and spare time shortage after reaching 1, unfortunatley I did not make it to stage 2 and beyond. Except for 7...

Flying an Ultralight, I believe on second or third solo, I caught a nasty crosswind seconds before touch down, which made the aircraft roll rather hefty. Wingtip had roughly 40-50cms ground clearance, but I did manage to get the plane down safely.

T-shirt was soaking wet, pretty scary event if you have no experience. But looking back it was fun.

Hopefully I will find the time to start flying again, but probably on a glider rather than on an ultralight.

So?
 

I soloed in 6 hours and have over 30K now. I just soloed a student yesterday
with about 15 hours but he could have done it much sooner. We did hood time
and night instruction before solo.

Skyking :)

Solo in 22 hrs, PPL(A) in 58 hrs. And I'm 27 so I can't blame my old age ;)

Since this thread had been resurrected, I will add that time to solo is also dependent upon the era in which you learnt to fly.

Pre-war/wartime having no H&S culture probably knocked 5+ hours off time to solo.

2011 in a H&S crazy, litigious society add on 5!!!

I soloed twice
 

Well, I started flying, I was 17 years old, flying out of a small county airport. My instructor was ex US Airforce. He was the best instructor I ever had. He said I was ready to solo and I had just over 3 hours. He said that although he though I was ready, lets take the Citabria up and practice some in it. Now, understand, we trained in a C152. We took the Citabria up twice once just TO adn LNDs and the second time, we went acrobatic. That was EXCITING.:D

He soloed me at 4.5 hours. I flew a few more hours and then dropped out for 30 years.

I decide to get my PPL, I wanted good instruction, I came to a part 141 school, I believe I had 13 hours when they soloed me. I got my PPL and then my IR and now my CPL

I know I fly well, but I think my skills were sharper when I was 17, I felt I was the plane and could feel every movement. It was instinctive. Now, I fly with my mind, more than instinct, but I think some of that has slowly returned.

For what its worth I soloed in about 12hours and PPL'd in about 49hours (I think)

But IMHO as many others have said, this really is completely irrelavant nonsense, and is not something I would recommend that current or prospective students worry about.

In my opinion what makes a good pilot as with many things, is mainly down to having the correct learning attitude and a risk profile that is suitable for your experience and aircraft, and not based on getthereitis.

Flying should be fun, but we should never stop learning. Obtaining a PPL should be seen as merely the starting point, therefore time to first solo bears into insignificance tbh.

Again FWIW, 7hrs 25 mins in a Tiger in 1958 taught by the late Dave Campbell at Luton FC as a Flying Scholarship pupil. Great instructor and great times for a then 17-year old. Then the same year, 12 launches to solo in a glider.
But in real terms, of course, it's meaningless really.

3:15; 6:00!

What nonsense. No instructor with even the most brilliant student can cover all the necessary air exercises in that short time. After the upper air exercises, it then takes at least two hours of uninterrupted circuit training to achieve the requisite "three unassisted circuits and landings" required for a first solo!

Any Flying Instructor sending a student solo in less than 10 hours should be seriosly examined by the CFI. (That's Chief Flying Instructor for the cousins.)

Hey Neptunus, you really want to watch that blood pressure. :)

Anyway, I solo'ed in 7:10 during the 1980's. I wasn't a S-Hot student but it was full time, 2-3 slots/day. I now teach PPL students and would say that, on average, they tend to go off on their own somewhere between 12-18hrs (beware, I'm using a particularly broad brush here).

Looking back, I think we teach more specific skills nowadays and cover more eventualities. It could be argued that some of these eventualities we used to run 'at risk'. It could also be argued that we do not need to teach all these skills before sending solo. Importantly, there is a subjective requirement that is never articulated in the training manual/SOPs. A student pilot may have ticked all the necessary boxes but is not ready to go it alone.

Personally, I weigh-up all the variables and possibilities and would never encourage a student pilot to aim for a particular target. Unfortunately, a noticeable majority of student pilots are youngsters who don't notice the journey on the way to their destination. :sad:

And suppose you don't, and someone crashes on the runway while the new pilot is on his/her first solo, and he has to land somewhere else? It's happened in the past. Shouldn't he be at least slightly equipped to cope with it? Or is a boast by the student and/or instructor that he soloed in single-digit hours so much more important?

Whirly, I don't have a straight answer to your question. It still comes down to risk management. Take your scenario - the answer depends upon:

How many runways are available
The need/desire for fire cover
The number of other aircraft in the sky
The diversion options
etc etc

My point is that we can be overly protective as a result of not making a sensible risk assessment. There are obvious things that must be taught and demonstrated to a satisfactory standard. There are others that seem to have been developed as folklore (I've seen instructors insist on short/soft field techniques prior to first solo). Alternatively, we can adopt the Health and Safety, "No" culture.

As I previously said, we shouldn't create false milestones based around time to solo; the markers should be a set of clearly defined and reasonable criteria.

With all the instructors here extolling the whys & wherefores of covering all possibilities before solo. I went solo after 14 hrs. Not current, but having about 100 hrs on gliders. I then did about 2hrs consolidation, during one of these I entered a small cloud on downwind, all went white for some 30sec while I concentrated on the AI, no problems. On landing it occured to me to ask my instructor if I could please stall the a/c at some time just to check it's characteristics. Deathly hush in the office, I was asked to wait outside a moment! "Next time, exercise 10A.B" etc. I also did some 25hrs of navigation exercises, I never once got lost, I was never "unsure of position" I was never purposefully lost by any instructor, it was just, "plod on yet again to xyz or wherever". 66hrs to NPPL.

Time to first solo also depends on how many exercises/skills your school thinks you need to master doesn't it? In my case it was not just circuits but also comms. failure, finding alternates, EFATO, FLWOP, stalling, go-arounds and when to go around as well as 3 landing configs. (glide, flapless and short field). Nobody could learn/master all that in under 10 hours I think. The authorizing instructor quizzed me for 20 minutes as to what I would do if the field was closed due to an accident etc. etc. The actual first solo circuit was such a non-event that I barely remember it. First solo X-country was when "it" really hit me.

Cheers

Solo was easier in "the old days"!

I have just started reading "Sagittarius Rising" by Cecil Lewis. In 1915 he went solo in 1.5 hours, in a "Maurice Farman Longhorn".

However, the Longhorn climbed at 40 Knots, so I would guess it stalled at 25-30. He doesn't mention runways, so I guess they flew from a big field, always into wind. From his brief description crashes were routine, but one was expected to survive them. ("How we laughed" when George crashed into the sewage farm...)

On the other hand he got a combat posting after 13 hours:eek:, which he did consider inadequate.

And the most crucial factor!!!! Does the instructor have a pressing need to squeeze one out?

NR

Air Cadets on scholarships usually have a good deal of prior time on gliders including powered gliders. Normally they will have soloed in glider at the very least. Quite a few will be gliding instructors, some with solo cross country time. The scholarships are very highly structured and audited by RAF CFS. The pass rate for solo within 12 hours is well over 90 percent and the average is around 10 hrs 30 mins to solo. 8 -9 hours is common place, 7 hours is rare. I expect said Hitchcock, probably had additional flying time elsewhere under his belt. Being an ace has nothing to do with it - there is a lengthy competency checklist to tick off and exams to pass just as you would expect.

PS

Mad Jock....10/10 as always :ok:

Hi all

I'm new to this forum so be nice...

I'm currently training for a PPL and have done just under 30hrs; 7 of which have been solo, with 4.5 of those being navex's. My 1st solo was compelted after 9hrs 15mins (this was delayed by an hour or two due to my AME being on leave and Optom. availability).

I will add that I was an Air Cadet flying gliders and also currently Mil ATC. Personally I've found thus far that a substantial theoretical knowledge of circuits/procedures/ATC has helped enormously with R/T and general awareness, so much so that confidence in my limited ability, and concentration required to fly the aeroplane are vastly increased hopefully without arrogance :hmm:.

In my inexperienced opinion, a little knowledge can go a long way to building self-confidence.

With a lot of glider winch launches and landings, and two excellent instructors, I soloed after 3 hours 5 minutes (including a 30m flight in a Tiger for spinning) at Thruxton in 1964. That was on a VERY Simple Single Engine Aircraft, a Jackeroo.
No brakes, flaps, radio or any other electrics. No ATC. Up to 8 (or 10?) other aircraft in the circuit, and Middle Wallop nearby. I completed the 30 hour PPL in 25 days. Of course for the navigation exercises, I just followed the magenta line. The instructors didn't see anything wrong with me using a magenta china graph.

Ya see its the No ATC which makes the difference xxx

Did it in under and hour and blind folded, i flared just by using my sense of smell.

Who cares, you did when you did it, you're still alive so you can't be that bad.