16 year old flys solo

It's the instructors descision when to allow their student to solo. If he feels that the student is capable, the instructor will sign off a little page in the log book. I"m most likely am going to have close to 100 hours before i solo because i got 3 years left to go.

Jamie4590 wrote:

In my local paper it tells a story of a boy who took his first solo flight on his 16th birthday after just 11 hours training. Even though he has grown up with aircraft as his dad is a pilot and he has obviously picked up a lot 11 doesn't seem a long time before being allowed to fly solo! Is that a normal amount of time?

No, 11 hours is certainly not a standard amount of time. 45hrs is the minimum before you can take your test with most people soloing at around 35-40hrs at the minimum, but more commonly, around 50hrs. Unless you come from an aviation background, or learn things extremely fast, then going solo at 16 is highly uncommon.

Incidentally, a 16 year old boy from Essex went on his first solo flight and unfortunately crashed and died.

I know I'll be reluctant to fly solo until I'm confident in myself, rather than somebody else being confident for me, especially when it'll be them thats on the ground and me in the flying missile.

That's one hell of a feeling flying your first solo. I bet there is a lot of fear involved in it. 😕

Jamie4590 wrote:

In my local paper it tells a story of a boy who took his first solo flight on his 16th birthday after just 11 hours training. Even though he has grown up with aircraft as his dad is a pilot and he has obviously picked up a lot 11 doesn't seem a long time before being allowed to fly solo! Is that a normal amount of time?

Obviously a very talented and bright boy. He deserves to be rewarded for his efforts.