Solo question

I will make the first guess becuase I don't think this is really tracked accurately anywhere....

Once a week training, I am assuming the avg flight is 1.5ish, I would probably say the average time would be 30-40 hours or more and maybe even never.

This all depends on the student too but I would bet you would be reviewing alot of stuff each time you fly if you are just doing it once a week. Now if you double up and fly twice a week, then I think you could easily cut that in half and solo at 20 hrs or maybe even less. If you flew 3x a week, maybe down to 10 hrs?

People get caught up on how long it takes to solo, but you have to look at the big picture. You could get training to go and do a few trips around the pattern in a just a few flights. The thing is, that is about all you would be capable of doing. I think in the old days, people were soloing in 5 hrs or maybe less but were they safe and could they pass a private checkride? Doubt it. Today with all the new radios, GPS, funky airspace, and other things, I doubt you would be able to do this. Even if you did, you may look back on it wondering why you soloed so quickly instead of learning all the ins-and-outs of what it takes to get the private pilot license.

Curious to see how my opinions differ from others....
 
I flew 1x a month for while, then went to 1 or 2x a week. I started this when i was 15, soloed after i was 16 at about 20 some hours.
 
If you drag it out to only once a week I would also say 40 to 50 hours. If you are serious about getting your certificate, save your money and plan some time were you can dedicate three to four times a week to get it done. I spend a lot of time with my students who only fly a few times a month relearning previous learned skills. This method wastes a lot of time and money. I understand it is hard to set aside that much time and money all at once, at the time I did my private I had three kids and two jobs. I worked my tail off and got it done quickly.
 
nkoenig said:
What's the average time for a student to solo? Only being able to train once a week.
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I started flying a week before i turned 15 and was training only 2 times a month and sometimes just once, and i soloed with about 22 hours. My instructor said he would have sent me off with about 10 hrs. but i was only 15 then. Just depends on how quickly you can learn the maneuvers. If you can go out and learn a few maneuvers each flight and be able to do them the next flight on your first try, then youd probably be good to solo around 10-15 hrs.
 
B__ said:
If you drag it out to only once a week I would also say 40 to 50 hours. If you are serious about getting your certificate, save your money and plan some time were you can dedicate three to four times a week to get it done. I spend a lot of time with my students who only fly a few times a month relearning previous learned skills. This method wastes a lot of time and money.
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:yeahthat:
 
The estimates are about right. I tend to train once-a-weekers. My bad schedule and theirs coincides more or less. Mid 30's to mid 40's has been typical.
 
Thanks guys.

My situation is this im at 30 hrs and have been going about once a week i used to go 2 or 3 times a week before the time changed but since then i can only do weekends now. Anyway Im polishing my landings and after that he will allow me to solo. Anybody have any advice on landing? Sometimes i balloon up and its really starting to frustrate me.
 
nkoenig said:
Anybody have any advice on landing? Sometimes i balloon up and its really starting to frustrate me.
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Don't balloon up... I'm not saying it to be harsh, but to be direct. You're the pilot... make the plane do what you want it to...

other advice... look down the runway, not in front of the plane. Don't over control, but still control it. As you slow down in the flare you have to keep increasing all your control forces to get the plane stay in the landing position since the controls are becoming less effective. Keep flying the plane.

But like I said above, you're the pilot, fly the plane!
 
If you are finding that the plane is trying to climb when you are in the flare and you want it to go down it could mean you came in a bit too fast. Try and control your airspeed a bit more on final and especially short final. If you have the proper airspeed it will give you a good flare and then gently settle to the ground.

Like he said above though, if the plane starts to go up and you have that power pulled back, push the yoke forward a bit and keep it from climbing. You are in control of that airplane so dont let it take you where you don't want to go. Just keep the plane right above the ground a few feet and it will sit down just like you want to to.

One thing that I have found really helps is to just let your CFI take a landing and have him do a low pass in the flare so you are just a foot or two above the runway. While he is doing this, look down the runway, and look down at your wheel and out the side of the window. It can really give you a good feel for where you are supposed to be.

Good luck! Keep us updated on your progress!
 
nkoenig said:
Anybody have any advice on landing? Sometimes i balloon up and its really starting to frustrate me.
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Sounds like you're pulling back and raising the nose a little too much too soon.

When you get close to the runway (5 or 10 feet) raise the nose just enough to fly level down the runway. In other words, go from a slightly nose low pitch attitude during the approach to an essentially flat, level pitch attitude close to the runway. As the plane slows down it'll start to sink a little. That means it's slow enough that you ought to be able to raise the nose without ballooning. Pull back slowly in order to raise the nose about as high as you would when you're taking off. Then, as the airspeed decays, keep pulling just enough to keep the nose from lowering.

Pull, pull, pull, wait for the wheels to roll on, then listen for the compliments from your instructor.

The nice thing about this technique is that it doesn't much matter how fast your approach speed is. You could come down final at 130 knots and it wouldn't make a difference. It would just increase the time you spend flying level down the runway before the plane gets slow enough to start sinking again.
 
jrh said:
it doesn't much matter how fast your approach speed is. You could come down final at 130 knots and it wouldn't make a difference. It would just increase the time you spend flying level down the runway before the plane gets slow enough to start sinking again.
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Well yeah, but he is having problems keeping it from going back up, this would just give hime more time/airspeed to screw up with. I guess you could look at this as more time to practice it but I tried this one time with a student and I think it just frustrated him even more and then he ended up getting slow as he goes back up thus starting to come down hard. You want to be really careful here, as a CFI it is easy to give a student a bit too much rope here so you want to be careful and watch them hard.

The only semi-scary moment I have had so far while instructing was doing just what I described above. The student ballooned up and got slow and we started down pretty hard. I was able to get his hand off the throttle and get enough power in that it wasn't that bad really but I would hate to see what would have happened if he was by himself.
 
Timbuff10 said:
Well yeah, but he is having problems keeping it from going back up, this would just give hime more time/airspeed to screw up with. I guess you could look at this as more time to practice it but I tried this one time with a student and I think it just frustrated him even more and then he ended up getting slow as he goes back up thus starting to come down hard. You want to be really careful here, as a CFI it is easy to give a student a bit too much rope here so you want to be careful and watch them hard.
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I don't know...maybe it's easier for me to teach this in the plane than it is to type it out over the internet. This method has worked well for me with all of my students and nothing even close to scary has happened. I think MidlifeFlyer uses a similar method for teaching pre-solo students how to land.

My issue with talking about approach speeds is that I don't think approach speeds really matter in a light Cessna. It's the last 10 feet that determine how good of a landing it will be, not the last half mile.
 
Here's what I was thinking of from MidlifeFlyer's FAQ:

MidlifeFlyer's FAQ said:
I find that it often helps to think of the "flare" in two parts, the second of which is really the flaring part: "level off" and "flare".

Levelling off involves flattening your downward motion - you transition the airplane from it's descent to level flight. Thinking of it this way tends to help helps with ballooning problems since changing to the familiar level flight attitude tends to help avoid over-rotating. How high is the level off? Well, it's usually somewhat lower, but you're generally safe if you begin about a wing span off the ground - you want to level off into ground effect.

The level off will start the process of bleeding off speed, and the final descent to the ground. Once it begins, you can start the flare.

The flare itself involves slowly (so you slow but do not stop the descent) bringing the nose up to the exact same position it was in when the mains left the ground on takeoff. I'll repeat that. The flare itself involves slowly bringing the nose up to the exact same position it was in when the mains left the ground on takeoff. It's easy to visualize and the best part is that if the nose is in that position, you =will= land mains first.
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I read this when I first started instructing. It made sense, so I incorporated it into my teaching and it's always worked out well.
 
The one thing I want to add to this is if you balloon up DO NOT push the nose down, go around instead. Ballooning is a result of too much speed, and attempting to flare too early with too much speed. If you are having trouble judging your height and speed during landing and you push the nose over, you could get into Pilot Induced Oscillation. POI is a nasty deal and may result in a damaged aircraft. Normally, you can get away with hitting the nosewheel one time. Its usually the second and third hit that causes the nosewheel to collapse and stricking the ground with the propeller.
 
Thanks guys for all of your advice.
I was flying on Friday and finally figured out my problem.
I'm not pulling the power fast enough as I flare causing to have too much airspeed. Thanks for your help.
 
That would do it!

Just wondering, does your instructor have you reduce the power while you're actually in the flare, or after you touch down? Changing power settings in the flare can be a tricky balancing act for a pre-solo student.

I usually have people reduce the power to idle once they know they can glide to the runway. That eliminates the variable of power and they can focus more on flying. I've also known instructors who have people carry a tiny bit of power all the way through the roundout, flare, and landing. That method works equally well I think, just a different technique. It makes the flare "slower" and can help make smoother touchdowns.

Anyway, nice job. Now that you have it figured out, don't mess up a good thing!
 
now go out and do some touch n goes without ever letting the nose gear touch the ground, mains only!

That is one of my favorite things to show a student and get them to do.
 
Got one better.

Have students fly down the runway in the flare. Instructor controls the power so that they won't land, but so they have to get used to the control forces used in the flare. This gives them an entire runway worth of working with the flare instead of a few seconds.

Teach them to NOT land and keep the power in for a while. Eventually, cut the power slowly and the aircraft will land itself. Bam, the student already knows how to control the aircraft in the flare from the previous lesson of keeping the power in, and now without it you make a simple transition to a full stall landing.

Easy eh?
 
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