Question for CFIs

[Casey Wilson]

I was going to ask this question on R.A.Students but I think this is a
more appropriate forum.
After how many hours of dual do you expect the average person to be
ready to solo?
I understand that it is subjective. Not every person is ready to solo
at the same time. There are a number of fundamentals that you require before
you are ready to turn a person loose. There is no urgency in getting
allowing them to solo. Safety is the most important criterium. Etcetras.
Long, long ago an instructor told me a ball-park number of ten hours. He
said he expected to take that long, plus or minus a couple hours, to drill
the fundamentals into a student.
What's been your average?

[Peter Duniho]

"Casey Wilson" <N2310D @ gmail.com> wrote in message
news:okLRd.42709$uc.14902@trnddc04...
> [...]
> I understand that it is subjective. Not every person is ready to solo
> at the same time. There are a number of fundamentals that you require
> before you are ready to turn a person loose. There is no urgency in
> getting allowing them to solo. Safety is the most important criterium.
> Etcetras.

Don't forget that it also depends heavily on the airport environment. At a
busy controlled airport (to name a particular kind of extreme...uncontrolled
airports can be busy too), a student may have the flying skills required to
solo, but still need additional time practicing on the radio. Additionally,
at a busy controlled airport, the practice area is often farther away,
resulting in a higher logged number of hours for a given number of effective
training hours.

> [...]
> What's been your average?

IMHO, if you are asking "what's been your average" and expect to do anything
useful with that information, you need to be more specific about why you
think you need that information. You can't collect responses here (or any
similar forum) and expect to come up with anything that is relevant to
anything.

Pete

[Bob Moore]

"Casey Wilson" wrote

> What's been your average?

12-15 hours

Bob Moore
ATP CFI since 1970
PanAm (retired)

[RST Engineering]

Ditto here for a country uncontrolled field.

Roughly +50% for a controlled field in a class B or military environment
.... like Montgomery in San Diego with Miramar MCAS a couple of miles north
and San Diego Int'l a couple of miles south.

Jim
Also CFI since 3 Dec 1970


"Bob Moore" > wrote in message
. 121...
> "Casey Wilson" wrote
>
>> What's been your average?
>
> 12-15 hours
>
> Bob Moore
> ATP CFI since 1970
> PanAm (retired)

[[email protected]]

On average between 15-20 hours. When I began instructing in the mid
60's the emphasis was on getting a student soloed under 10 hours. But,
it was and is my opinion that when that student goes up for the first
time, they better be ready to handle oddball things that come up on a
regular basis.
When I first start with them, I tell them solo is just one step in the
route to a private license and there should be no major rush. When I
step out of the aircraft, I am comfortable that the student can go to
the practice area and do every maneuver required on the private check
ride and do so safely.
I recently finished a student who never flew with anyone else. He
soloed at about 17 hours and got his private check ride out of the way
at 41.5 hours. Now he has gone to another operator to start on his
instrument rating as I left the area.
Ol Shy & Bashful CFI/AIRM-Gold Seal 1968

[Greg Esres]

<<After how many hours of dual do you expect the average person to be
ready to solo?>>

The earliest I've soloed someone is 17 hours. I'm sure my average is
over 20.

The FAA has a list of required training before a student can solo. If
you wanted to, you could run through that training in a couple of
hours. My feeling is that the student should be *proficient* at all
those maneuvers. Teaching a forward slip just once prior to solo is
useless; the student must be good enough at it to have it as part of
his toolbox.

Realistically, I'm not sure that the emphasis on solo is such a great
thing. Perhaps putting the solo after the dual cross-country phase
would make more sense.

[C J Campbell]

According to the Cessna CFI management computer, 12.4 hours for me; between
12 and 14 hours for everybody in our school.

[Bushleague]

Relax Peter. Casey is either new or is hung up on a particular
student. Experience will tell you when a student is ready, as when he
can take you on a local flight safely without your intervention. If
unsure, have the Chief Pilot or another instructor give a phase check
for proficiency.

I once soloed a student in 6.8 hours, an outstanding individual. Some
others who took much, much longer simply weren't hitting the books.

Bush

ATPCFIIASMEL

On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 18:12:36 GMT, "Casey Wilson" <N2310D @ gmail.com>
wrote:

> I was going to ask this question on R.A.Students but I think this is a
>more appropriate forum.
> After how many hours of dual do you expect the average person to be
>ready to solo?
> I understand that it is subjective. Not every person is ready to solo
>at the same time. There are a number of fundamentals that you require before
>you are ready to turn a person loose. There is no urgency in getting
>allowing them to solo. Safety is the most important criterium. Etcetras.
> Long, long ago an instructor told me a ball-park number of ten hours. He
>said he expected to take that long, plus or minus a couple hours, to drill
>the fundamentals into a student.
> What's been your average?
>

[Casey Wilson]

"Bushleague" > wrote in message
...
> Relax Peter. Casey is either new or is hung up on a particular
> student.

None of the above.
Casey Wilson
Freelance Writer and Photographer

>Experience will tell you when a student is ready, as when he
> can take you on a local flight safely without your intervention. If
> unsure, have the Chief Pilot or another instructor give a phase check
> for proficiency.
>
> I once soloed a student in 6.8 hours, an outstanding individual. Some
> others who took much, much longer simply weren't hitting the books.
>
> Bush
>
> ATPCFIIASMEL
>
> On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 18:12:36 GMT, "Casey Wilson" <N2310D @ gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I was going to ask this question on R.A.Students but I think this is
>> a
>>more appropriate forum.
>> After how many hours of dual do you expect the average person to be
>>ready to solo?
>> I understand that it is subjective. Not every person is ready to solo
>>at the same time. There are a number of fundamentals that you require
>>before
>>you are ready to turn a person loose. There is no urgency in getting
>>allowing them to solo. Safety is the most important criterium. Etcetras.
>> Long, long ago an instructor told me a ball-park number of ten hours.
>> He
>>said he expected to take that long, plus or minus a couple hours, to drill
>>the fundamentals into a student.
>> What's been your average?
>>
>

[Brian]

I have developed the policy that I just will not solo anybody with less
than 10 hrs, unless they have previous (not logged) flight expirence.

My feeling is that the student should just be exposed to at least 10
hours of what kind of stuff happens in and around pattern. It is not
all that uncommon for me to have students that are ready to solo in 5-7
hours (Advantage of a non-tower airport) but I don't want to set that
expectation for the my students, Plus it is easy and probably
beneficial to go ahead and start working on ATC practice or Cross
Country Navigation Skills to build them up to the 10 hrs I require for
them to solo.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL

[[email protected]]

My average is around 20 hours. My last student soloed at 26 hours.
mostly because bad weather and aircraft availability issues forced us
to fly less frequently than I like to. I tell students (when they ask)
to expect to have anywhere between 15-30 hours before solo.

Given that FAR 61.87 requires logged training (and proficiency) in 15
different areas, I tend to believe that students who solo at 8 hours
(I've seen as low as 6) may not be adequately prepared. I've had
another instructor criticize me for keeping students on the leash too
long, but one of the jobs of the CFI is to resist the natural tendency
of many students to solo as soon as possible. I would much rather solo
a student a couple of hours later than he is acceptably 'ready' than to
send him out there when I have any doubt about his safety.

Cheers,

Cap





Casey Wilson wrote:
> I was going to ask this question on R.A.Students but I think this is
a
> more appropriate forum.
> After how many hours of dual do you expect the average person to
be
> ready to solo?
> I understand that it is subjective. Not every person is ready to
solo
> at the same time. There are a number of fundamentals that you require
before
> you are ready to turn a person loose. There is no urgency in getting
> allowing them to solo. Safety is the most important criterium.
Etcetras.
> Long, long ago an instructor told me a ball-park number of ten
hours. He
> said he expected to take that long, plus or minus a couple hours, to
drill
> the fundamentals into a student.
> What's been your average?

[joetorak]

If you are flying from a relatively less busy fields you can proably do it
sooner than if at a Class D or other towered sites. There you may not have
the ability to practice landings as frequently.
I usually took students to other airports for landing practice. It also
depends on the student a whole lot.
J. Torak