Private training progress update

[Folding_Expert]

Well, I easily eclipsed the 20 hour mark today (by like 1.5 hours, actually), yet I find myself still awaiting that much anticipated first solo flight. Anything to be worried about? My instructor keeps telling me (and my friends) that I'm doing fantastic. I'm been doing 100% of the flying in the last few lessons, so I'm a bit confused. Maybe going through some motions or something?

No biggie, I just feel like an underachiever as of the moment.

 

[Onlyflyfreight]

Call me slow, but what you are saying is: why havn't I solo'd yet?

Ask him (your instructor)!

Don't know how experienced he is, but if he has some student's under his belt he should have all the answers to why you haven't gone out on your own.

If he is new, he might just be as "emotional" as you! Remember you are flying on his certificate!

 

[hindsight2020]

I think you're fine, it depends on a lot of things. Your instructor might be proceeding through the syllabus with a different emphasis, or perhaps he/she may feel the instances in which he/she would have been ready to send you to the blue skies solo, the weather or other elements were a little more aggressive than he/she would have liked. I remember feeling restless the day I thought I would have a chance to do my solo touch and go's and the cross-winds were aggressive for a pre-solo student pilot so my instructor did not give me the go, which was appropriate.

Your instructor will be the final judge on this, but provided a mild weather day, your instructor's convinction on your satisfactory completion and mastery of the fundamentals for solo phase, I submit you're ready to solo and it will inmensely boost your confidence and motivation towards the completion of the rest of your training. Good luck, and don't worry about the hours, like I said, weather, instructor approach to the syllabus and personal factors affect the total time before solo, nominally at 20 hours you're more than fine. If you were at 30 hours you would be running behind the power curve or the instructor is not appropriately challenging your progress. So you're doing good. Keep up the work, good luck man.

 

[skyaddict]

While every instructor has their own comfort level, it is not so much being able to do all the flying fine that tells him that you are ready, so much as it is seeing that if you do screw up, you can recover appropriately on your own without any help or hints. Perhaps you have been flying so well that he hasn't had a chance to see you recover from screw ups (especially bad landings eg bounce/balloon recoveries etc). Either way I wouldn't sweat worrying about any magic number of hours for soloing, as it all evens out later.

 

[9GClub]

Folding,

I'm still pre-solo too, at 13 hours. Instructor wanted to sign me off at 9, but I didn't feel ready so I turned him down. Over the past few lessons I felt like I was regressing, it was kinda annoying. On a calm day it's no problem, but I'm flying out of a field with a 26x2000 strip that's surrounded by trees, so any wind and I'm super busy. The biggest problem for me throughout training has consistently been the last 20-30 seconds of final approach... the fact that my instructor's in the right seat is a sort of psychological hindrance in the sense that I feel like we're each flying 50% of the airplane. I'm looking forward to soloing 'cause then I know that the buck stops with me. Does that make sense? The first solo is one of those points in your training where you have to be 90% confident and 10% apprehensive-- and then you have to DO it, and you're over the hill. As others have said, your hour count at solo time doesn't count for much in the long run, so don't sweat it.

Bottom line is that you have to feel ready and you have to be correcting your screw-ups on your own. Pulling for ya man, hang in there.

 

[Folding_Expert]

Well, it seems my prior concerns are a moot now, as I flew solo for the first time today.

Thanks for the comments and support, everyone. I'll keep posting my progress, for those interested.

 

[Flying Illini]

Congrats on the solo!

 

[bigD]

Congrats, man! Don't worry about the numbers so much - just work hard and have a good time!