Meant to say it was LESS expensive to buy/rebuild an O-320 than rebuild an O235.
It took me about 13 hours in a PT-17 Stearman trainer.
Time taken to solo varies a LOT from person to person. I went solo in 6.5 hours, there are some examples here of people who’ve taken longer, and I know other people who went solo in less time – one actually introduced himself as “hi I’m Dave, I soloed in 6.2 hours”, tosser. Ultimately, although it is an important milestone, particularly for the student pilot, the time taken is quite meaningless and reflects nothing more than the various backgrounds of students. Once everyone’s been brought up to a certain standard things begin to even out.
8-10 hours for your son is quite normal. Be reassured that he will not be given the authority to fly whenever he likes. A supervising instructor must be present at the base and they must authorise each flight he makes. Today may be suitable for flying solo but tomorrow may not be (due weather normally). The instructor is responsible for any flying that a student does solo. This means the instructor won’t be letting him fly solo unless they’re confident that nothing bad will happen.
When I did mine, I was living at home and on an unemployment benefit*. I could afford 1 lesson per week and that lesson would be restricted to 0.7 hours max (I was very lucky to have a flying school that bent over backwards to fit around my quite specific needs). That was just enough to retain and improve on my skills each week. When it came time to do navigation exercises I had to save up for a few weeks before flying. Although it worked out ok for me, I don’t think anyone should really plan on this kind of lesson schedule. Magiver’s 1 hour minimum is spot on.
*Some may be shocked to think that a layabout unemployed 18 year old used tax payers money to fund his pilots licence rather than looking for work, but I’ve now paid it all back (many times over) in tax on income gained using that licence so there!
Took me 17.8 hours - 1.7 of which was a trial introductory flight.
But I’m quite cautious - could have been done a good 2-3 hours earlier than that.
I have heard of people going 40 or 50 hours before solo involving some issue about their medical clearance. In such instances, the student may well go on to more advanced things prior to solo. I heard of one instance where a man was taking lessons, his medical waiver for some condition or other was delayed in Oklahoma City, and thus he couldn’t solo. He continued to take lessons, did his dual cross country, and so forth. His 3rd Class medical was finally approved when he had 80 hours, he then soloed, completed all his solo work in a week, and took (and passed) his checkride the week following.
I have also known victims of an unscrupulous practice known as “churning”, where the CFI basically strings someone along, taking their money and simply never signing them off to solo. This can rack up an impressive number of pre-solo hours until the person either gives up in digust, or finally figures out they’re being scammed and goes elsewhere. At which point they have to contend with people questioning their ability because they have 60 or whatever pre-solo hours. It’s not that they’re incompentent - they’ve been victimized is what happened. But the egoists strutting about bragging about how few hours it took them to solo naturally don’t see it that way, and can make life pretty unpleasent for someone who’s already been taken advantage of. Once these folks get their license they may even go elsewhere to fly, somewhere where their hours-to-solo aren’t known and thus not an issue. The point being, if you have your license you’ve demonstrated a certain level of competence and the FAA doesn’t really care how long it took you to get there.
Another circumstance that can increase hours-to-solo is someone who starts on a complex plane. We have one of those currently at our airfield - he bought an airplane, a high performance single with retractable gear and adjustable prop, then went shopping for lessons. It took him something like 60 or 70 hours to solo, but that’s because he was flying a more complicated airplane than the typical trainer and for that reason it took him longer to learn to safely fly the thing. It’s going on 3 or 4 years now and he still doesn’t have his private license yet. Well, it’s not what I did, but it’s what and how he wants to do this, it’s his money. Folks have been telling him from day one that he’s taking the long, slow, expensive route to the license but hey, he hasn’t given up yet so he must be getting something out of the experience.
So, to get back to the OP - 10 hours to solo is a reasonable figure, and in line with how things are supposed to happen. But the issue isn’t “how many hours” it’s “when is the student ready”.
This kind of thing can happen due to poor training management as well. I know of people who would turn up to their aeroclub for a lesson. They would get one of the many young part time instructors, one they hadn’t flown with before.
The instructor would say,
“what are you up to?”
“Well I did steep turns on my last flight”
“Ok, we’ll go and see how those are coming along”
They spend a flight going over steep turns
Next day, different instructor.
“what are you up to?”
“Well I did steep turns on my last flight”
“Ok, we’ll go and see how those are coming along”
They spend a flight going over steep turns, again.
In this manner, each lesson that should only take one or two flights gets extended to 6 or more!
There does not appear to be any specific restrictions against students in the applicable portion of the FARs, 91.157, except at night, where an instrument-rated pilot is required. That being said, SVFR clearances can only be granted at airports in Classes B, C, D, and E surface areas, at airports where it is already not specifically prohibited, and when the visibility is at least 1 SM. Personally, I wouldn’t attempt such a thing as a student because of the extreme risk involved anyway.
An ex-colleague of mine had a wonderful wheeze: at one point he was restricted to flying such that he always remained within sight of land, so when he was in the area, he’d find a hole in the clouds and fly up through it, and could then fly as long as he was in sight of the top of Snowdon, which was, of course, above the clouds…
Personally, I thought he was lucky to be alive.