I was just wondering what the average time it takes a person before they can fly solo. I'm not in a rush just curious.

I was always told the average is about 12 to 15 flights. Some may learn faster, some may learn a little slower though.

Well, I was doing pretty good after about 12 flights or so, but my learning growth got a little stunted when a bird flew into my plane on take off and grounded me for a couple of months. Now, after finally getting back in the cockpit, I'm solo after about 6 flights (had to get over that nervousness of crashing into birds).

I'd go along with the 15 flights number.

You didn't specify "successful" solo. My first RC flight 20 years ago was a solo. I sold the pieces, so it was more of a so-long.

From my observations it depends on your attitude, depth-perception, ability to remain calm under stress, quality of your instructions up to that point, and the docility (sp?) of the model you are flying. That and dozens of other variables.

One day while still under tutelage, I arrived at the airfield and was alone. I spent two hours taxiing, eventually getting up the courage to rise off the ground and throttle down to land again. Those two hours did more to boost my confidence than anything else I experienced. Just getting a feel for the aeroplane without the pressure of an audience worked marvels for me. I would certainly recommend a buddy-box, or at least expert instruction. You'll know when the time is right. Our club has a ten week school, and at the end of that time we still had a few students who weren't ready to solo. One of them has the worst depth -perception of any human being I have ever known. I haven't seen him at any of our winter meetings, and that is a shame.

Hopefully your path will be short and fun. It's a wonderful hobby.

Yep what's "solo"?
i soloed on my first flight if you count doing circles with my knees shaking as solo. to be comfortable flying and taking off took about 10 flights, landing took about another 5 flights

I had one student who soloed his first day out

But then, I also know a guy that's been flying for 20 years and still needs a buddy box.

So it's definitely an individual thing LOL

A lot of it depends on your training regimen. What is your instructor teaching or not teaching you.

I solo'd on my 5th time out but I had spent several weeks on RealFlight G2 and I had a decent instructor. He taught me basic turns and how to fly over the runway. I quickly started trying out new stuff on my own (things I did on the Sim) like inverted flying, rolls, loops & figure 8s. I always figured, if I know the basics and know how to land I could give myself enough altitude and try new things safely.

HTH,
C.P.

Oh i forgot my 14yo daughter, she took off, flew and landed all on her first day.

and we dont use a buddy box system!,she was on her own with the instructor talking her through it all

do you think she gave me S**T

Spent 3 hrs on a sim than went to a field and solo'ed, kind of. First flight, I couldn't get my hands to stop shaking, ran out of fuel, and dead sticked in the farmers field. Patched up a couple of holes and went for second solo. Missed the runway and landed in the other farmers field with the carn stalks, no damage. Refueled and went for 3rd solo. On landing I ballooned and snapped the fuse in 2 pieces.
Could have been worse. I didn't have an instructor and really didn't know the dangers of this hobby (stupid). I got lucky but wouldn't recomend this to anyone. Now I'm a member and fly at a club. Great guys and lots of RC talk, can't beat it.

As others have mentioned, the average is not all that useful, since the range of different people is so vast, but the number I believe is 4 gallons of fuel, or about 60 flights. However, I define solo a little differently than some. I'm talking about real competence and confidence with a trainer-type airplane. You can fly in a mild cross-wind, you can put it down exactly where you intend to, you can land either direction, you can recover from a dead stick on take off, etc.

If you define "solo" as the first time you successfully take off, fly around, and land by yourself (i.e. the guy with the buddy box never has to take control), then I would guess the 15 number is about right.

I solo'd after 12 flights,which to means take-off, fly, and land on your own. The first day out I was able to fly the pattern and such, but no landing. On my 13th flight I was able to loop, split-s, fly inverted, roll, and stall turn. I probably could have landed on my 5th flight, but I didn't want to rush and lose my plane. I would recommend to everyone that you have an instructor. I have learned to fly and my plane still looks brand new.

Ou club says 3 takeoffs and landings without the engine quitting, seems to work well.

Took me three instructions sessions, about 5 flights, but most admit thats faster then usual, lots of flight sims, although no realflight. I did however, do alot of external view flying in flight sims.

I just can't believe my trainer is still working, did some ice flying in 7 degree weather, alot of the old timers wouldnt fly, was really windy, and really gusty, but heh, what the hell, was all over the sky with gusts, but trainer landed okay, wee!!!


I think I will never crash!!!




mill the time bomb

I guess I am slower than all of you. I never used a Sim, but would encourage everyone to use one. I use one now to keep some skills during the winter. I started in R/C in 2000 when I was about 37 years old. I have flown control line when I was younger, so I had some experience building and running engines.
My club requires that you be able to take off and land 5 consecutive flights without killing the engine. You also have to land deadstick several times and regain control after the instructor puts you in some weird attitude like inverted and flying away from the field etc. I could not go to training night every week, so I missed some weeks. I only flew on trainer night (once a week at best). I started in late May and soloed late in September. I used about a gallon of fuel.
I enjoyed training. All of us newbie’s had a kinship. Trainer nights were fun and we all tracked each other’s progress. We gave each other encouragement. The field was alive with conversation.
I still remember the last comment my instructor said to me when he sighed my club membership card. “You now have a license to crash”.

Bill

First, the definition.

At our club, solo means NO HELP, no instructor standing beside you.

You have to take off, land, and taxi back. Landing in the tall grass doesn't count.

I had G2 time,some electric time, and it took me about 12 or 13 flights before my instructor said "I'm gonna go sit down".

Believe me, that flight was 10 times more nerve wracking than any of the previous flight.

I don't think there is a high corelation between doing basic aerobatics and landing. Landing was much harder for me. I see many of the pilots at our club who are doing advanced aerobatics but can only land inside a one acre area.

Oh, and my favorite instructor said you need 50 successful landings before you can really believe you've got it mastered.

Have fun.

Million dollar builder fifty cent pilot Well better than that but! No solo yet. I have 22 flights in, with a great instructor, Dave Agar. He feels that being proficient with just one airframe isn't enough. So, he bring's some of his plane's out for me to fly just to mix thing's up. I'm glad, as I have 22 flight's with four diff. aircraft. I could have solo'd by now with just my own planes to fly, but I'm also thrilled with the extra experience I'm getting with the other's. I'll solo soon enough, but will stay on the buddy cord for a while, as I'm in a wheelchair. And the thought of loosing site because of mobility makes me very nervous. There's two way's to go about it. You can make a friend, that becomes your instructor. Or, like I did, Find an instructor that becomes your good friend Buz

I soloed in two weeks. But I was anxious to solo and loved to fly. I had a lot of experience with C/L and free flight and understood the basics of flight before I ever started with R/C.

I've seen one guy solo after 2 flights. The second flight was just to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

On the flip side, older folks tend to take longer. We have some people in our club who have been on a trainer cord for a couple years and always will be.

It just depends on how well you understand flight, how coordinated you are and several other factors. Basically you need to understand how an airplane flies. I especially think it's important to understand every kind of trouble you can get into with any given maneuver and what you're going to do about it.

Personally, I wouldn't want to solo someone until I could put his plane in a spin and hand him the box and a few other maneuvers (with altitude of course).

I think a lot depends on how consistently you can get flying. I get to fly about one in three or four weekends. When I was flying with an instructor, I found the first one or two flights after each "time off" were spent relearning what I'd done the last time I was out. It could be very frustrating as there were days when I just didn't seem to get any better... but, it happened eventually!

Just to solo my guess is 15 to 25 flights,to be a decent beginning pilot my guess is 30 to 50 flights. I've had students using a lot of sim time solo the second to third flight solo,but crash later after soloing because they didn,t spend enough time training the basic's of aerobatic flight.

I built my first trainer over the winter months and trained on Realflight G2. I'm not one for clubs, so I flew on my own for the first time this past weekend. It was a lot easier than I expected. I flew for about 2 hours. Got a little bored with flying in circles and figure 8's, so I started practicing some manuevers like barrel rolls and loops.

All I have to say is Realflight is an awesome tool.

Flying is a lot of fun, and I started out going it alone (with a parkflyer, not a gas trainer). However, I found the hobby much more fulfilling after I got up the nerve to go out to the club field.

I'd wade through all of the posts carefully before I'd follow the example of someone who managed to teach themselves. I think the success rate is rather low for the "go it aloners".

I'd have wrecked my LT-40 for sure if I'd tried it alone the first time, and I had a lot of time on parkflyers.

Have fun.

Without using a flight sim, I soloed in about 6 weeks flying about 4 or 5 flights a day almost every saturday. So it took me about 24-30 flights approxamately to solo.

Once I soloed I bought my father a club membership and I bought a Flight Sim. He used the Flight sim a wee bit to get his bearings and soloed in about 4 flights!


Its all about the individual, and what type of training you get.

I am one of those dumbasses that tried to fly without an instructor. Took a brand new Avistar and got it up in the air. Spent about 6 minutes flying out of control and when I decided that I better try landing My appraoch turn was too slow and too high banked........yes you guessed it......tip stall. Plane fell about 20 feet and broke the plane in two.

Spent the next two days putting it back together and took it to the field the following week where my instructor test flew it. He took me up and showed me the ropes for two flights. I guess he felt confident to let me solo and on the third flight I took off, flew around, and landed. It wasn't the smoothest landing, but it wasn't a crash

i soloed my first time, last weekend at el mirage dri lake bed, i had the confedence from hours on simulators, and glider flights, zagi style, so i had good cordanation, a couple hard landings, but nothing broke, not even a scrape or anything after 8 flights.

so ive joined the ama, and im gonna start flying at a local area,

i wouldnt recemend it for many people, most my skills i got from a combonation of simulators and flying the zagi type glider at bluffs. tought me alot about stick control and preseption.
but its a thrill the first time the wheels leave the ground.

I soloed very fast and I think simulators helped a lot. Practiced a little but not much on my brother-in-law's Realflight G2. However, I have flown fullscale flight simulators for about 8 years and I think that teaches you a lot about flight in general. Of course, nothing is like real life practice.

My instructer took off for me, I flew in circles for 5 minutes, then he landed with the trainer cord being used.

That week, I snuck out of the house, took off on my own, flew 5 minutes, and landed (pretty hard) on my own.

I've been solo ever since. THE KEY WAS G2 FLIGHT SIM FOR 3 WEEKS BEFORE EVEN MEETING MY TRAINER.