when do you typically solo?

[muleywannabe]

I currently have 17.2 hours. Just switched aircraft from a C172 to a Piper235 and have 2 hours and 4 landings/take offs. I don't seem to be overwhelmed by the additional speed, I find it comforting a little bit because on final we carry additional power to compensate for the heavy nose drop. Last lesson we practiced engine out procedures and did some stalls. I suspect, that 10 more hours would be about right but I am not a CFI. At what point in your training do you and your CFI feel its time to Solo? I dont feel comfortable enough yet by any means but was curious as to when you actually felt it was time or your CFI said it was.

 

[Jim Logajan]

*waves hand*.

I do, however, make a distinction between anticipation jitters and being nervous.

I wasn't nervous either. But I had practice on dealing with soloing:

I had 12.7 hours and 41 landings during training in a glider. I had started training in the middle of June that year and by the end of September my CFIG and I agreed I was ready to solo the next weekend. But she had to go on a business-related trip for a couple weeks (she was a veterinarian in her day job) and the owner of the private grass airfield would be shutting it down (i.e. stop mowing) for the season in that time. So she recommended another CFIG to take over for her while she was gone. The next week the other CFIG and I got together and naturally he wanted to review everything with me and do some flights with me before approving the solo. So we did 3 flights - all we could squeeze in that day. He wanted a few more flights with me before signing me off, but that turned out to be the last good weather weekend of that soaring season. I didn't solo that year.

Two years later I got around to resuming my flight training, but in airplanes. I'd had plenty of time to ponder some mistakes in my attitude - I chose to be more assertive and mentally "in command" even though legally the CFI was. As soon as I could, I mentally I acted as if the CFI wasn't there to save me and every takeoff and landing was all up to me. This is a mental attitude I had failed to fully embrace during glider training. As a result, in my mind I had "soloed" a lot earlier than the legal act of soloing. The legal solo was almost a "ho hum" affair to me - my CFI looked to be more excited than I was.

It has been claimed by some that glider training can impart good stick-and-rudder skills earlier than during training in airplanes, but I think I've shown that need not be the case. I was mentally confident and ready to solo earlier than the 19.6 airplane hours (32.3 glider+airplane) it took for me to consistently land the dang plane. For me, at least, any stick-and-rudder skills I might have picked up had all but vanished in those two years.

Oh yeah - I was really nervous anticipating the glider solo, but since it never happened I don't think it counts.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Jim - you owe yourself a Glider rating now....you know that, right

One of these days, yes.