In article , Greg Esres
writes
I wonder if your club is being lax in its training and proficiency
standards.

Possibly. Of course, I'm inclined to agree, because my students tend
to have a lot more hours at any milestone. The earliest I've soloed
someone is at about 17 hours. I've been criticized as being
"excessive."

Back in the early 1950s I was sent solo after 7 hours 10 minutes. I did
3 consecutive landings that satisfied my instructor who got out when I
was ready to take off and walked back across the field! That was on tail
draggers of course. I could not have done that today I am sure as we had
no radios or procedures to worry about!

In 2:55 solo and 13:45 dual we had covered stalling and spinning, steep
turns, cross wind landings, forced landing practice, short take-offs and
a few compass turns as well as use of flap including a go-around with
full flap set.

Then I gave up for various reasons, one of which was that I did not feel
that I would make a good pilot, perhaps because my father had been a
professional pilot in the RAF. I had also had a couple of encounters in
the air with other aircraft. One with the instructor and one solo. I
regret giving it up now a little but I also enjoyed the day many years
later when my son took me flying.
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