"Frustrated newbie" update - solo soon?

Hi again, and thanks to those who posted helpful responses to my
'rant' in early Sept. Seems I have had much better luck with
training since then....20 lessons, 23 hrs, as of yesterday, 20 Oct.
Some good, some great, some lousy...all useful.

But I taxi much better now :)

Averaging ~ 3 lessons/week, not bad considering 40hr work schedule,
married, instructors ALSO married and working other jobs, and of
course, Ohio WX!

Been in turbulence, mist, rain, crosswinds, gusts, calm, temps from
85-50 F; even got a taste of "in the clouds" when the ceiling was
nowhere near what the ASOS said...but all good experience.

Landings still need some polish...
Went up yesterday and quit after 5 landings due to low vis and low
ceilings...but all 5 landings were 'safe', and all on my own ( I had
help on one approach, I found out). A couple were not 'pretty' but I
was happy, considering my experience and a 10 kt x-wind component.

Now it is my instructor (not me!) saying I should solo before the end
of Oct...as in...we need to go over all the basics once more next week
and do more consistent safe landings, hopefully solo by 30th, before
the time change and we lose all daylight...then I guess it'll be
weekend flying until I'm ready for my night training...

He's even going to try to rearrange some 5 PM simulator sessions
(with an instrument student) to 7 PM (after dark) for next week so
we can fly more in the daylight. I KNOW he aint doin this for the
bux, and maybe not even just cuz he likes flyin'...he's just a great
guy!

Maybe PPL sometime next spring...going to keep plugging away at it
over the winter...Should be some lovely cold calm days once the autumn
bluster is gone...

Commenats welcome

--Don
Cessa/Piper/???
N-OTYET (maybe someday)

I read in magazines that the average solo time is about 26 to 28 hours?
After your Solo things happen really fast and the money seems to disappears
out of your bank account even faster. If you really got the "aviation
disease" after solo don't delay after Solo keep going like the energizer
bunny you will be very surprised how fast the rest of the training goes.


<kj5kb@m> wrote in message
news:9gjgn01pu957t7ae844ekvlvdvv2mrifel@...
> Hi again, and thanks to those who posted helpful responses to my
> 'rant' in early Sept. Seems I have had much better luck with
> training since then....20 lessons, 23 hrs, as of yesterday, 20 Oct.
> Some good, some great, some lousy...all useful.
>
> But I taxi much better now :)
>
> Averaging ~ 3 lessons/week, not bad considering 40hr work schedule,
> married, instructors ALSO married and working other jobs, and of
> course, Ohio WX!
>
> Been in turbulence, mist, rain, crosswinds, gusts, calm, temps from
> 85-50 F; even got a taste of "in the clouds" when the ceiling was
> nowhere near what the ASOS said...but all good experience.
>
> Landings still need some polish...
> Went up yesterday and quit after 5 landings due to low vis and low
> ceilings...but all 5 landings were 'safe', and all on my own ( I had
> help on one approach, I found out). A couple were not 'pretty' but I
> was happy, considering my experience and a 10 kt x-wind component.
>
> Now it is my instructor (not me!) saying I should solo before the end
> of Oct...as in...we need to go over all the basics once more next week
> and do more consistent safe landings, hopefully solo by 30th, before
> the time change and we lose all daylight...then I guess it'll be
> weekend flying until I'm ready for my night training...
>
> He's even going to try to rearrange some 5 PM simulator sessions
> (with an instrument student) to 7 PM (after dark) for next week so
> we can fly more in the daylight. I KNOW he aint doin this for the
> bux, and maybe not even just cuz he likes flyin'...he's just a great
> guy!
>
> Maybe PPL sometime next spring...going to keep plugging away at it
> over the winter...Should be some lovely cold calm days once the autumn
> bluster is gone...
>
> Commenats welcome
>
> --Don
> Cessa/Piper/???
> N-OTYET (maybe someday)
>

"NW_PILOT" <N7676U@> wrote in message news:<Qv-dnfGUnbOsFOXcRVn-pQ@>...
> I read in magazines that the average solo time is about 26 to 28 hours?

That seems really high to me. At that time you should be starting your
solo cross country training. I would say around 12 hours or so for
solo is the average I see. Some can certainly do it in 8-10 hours
though.
Of course when talking averages I would say the "average" student
starts flight training 3 times before getting their certificate.
-Robert, CFI