Well on August 31st I started my PPL training at an FBO here in St. Louis. It's a part 141 and paid for the whole PPL course upfront so saved me a couple dollars. I currently have a whole 7.2 in my shiny new logbook. Only 992.8 hours to go until I reach that 1000tt, lol... Once I am done with my PPL I plan to keep going and get as many tickets as I can, next would be instrument but I was told that I would need 50 hours x-country before I can begin my instrument training. Seeing how I will only have about 8 hours of x-country after my PPL checkride, how do I go about getting the other 42 hours? Is that normal that you can not just go straight into the next training? My instructor also said I might want to see if a CFII would want to go with me on some x-country flights and give some dual given and under the hood. So what do you all think and what is the time needed between each rating and how do I go about getting it?