In article , vincent p norris wrote:
Ridiculous, that's what they are!

A friend of mine, a CFII with lots of time in trikes, bought a Cessna
140 a couple of years ago.

Depends on the insurance company.

His insurance co. requried 20 (twenty) hours of dual before they'd
insure him.

Our club insurance only required a checkout (no minimum hours,
instructor discretion) when I got checked out in the C170.

My partner in the C140 taught his first student to fly from zero hours
in our aircraft. Again, the insurance company didn't specify a minimum,
just that the requirements of the FARs for soloing were met. This was in
2002. His student did his first solo off a grass airfield. IIRC, he had
on the order of 12 hours.

I must admit, I did watch his student *very* apprehensively during those
first solos in my plane :-)

The funny thing is (and I have it on videotape) is Paul watching his
student on his third solo, at Houston Gulf airport (5000x60, sadly now
closed). Another instructor is standing in the grass with Paul, watching
his student at about the same stage, in a Cessna 150. They are talking
about their respective students first solos. The conversation went like
this:

Paul: Yeah, I soloed him off the grass runway at Anhuac (a 3500 x 300
grass runway)
Other instructor: A grass runway? Is that considered safe!?

Paul then explained that grass runways (especially ones in reasonable
condition, and 300 feet wide) are SAFER, definitely for taildraggers,
and probably for nosedraggers.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"