Aviation lore is full of stories of the pilot who soloed an Aeronca Champ or Piper Cub after only four or five hours of instruction. When I started flying in the late 1970s, it was unstated but understood that something was wrong if "first solo" didn't come in under 10 hours. As airplanes and the environment in them has become more complex, however, more and new skills became emphasized in the presolo curriculum, adding to the time it takes to be ready for that first solo flight.The growth of light sport aircraft (LSAs) may put many students back in airplanes with Cub- or Champ-like performance and handling, although reportedly many LSAs have decidedly different characteristics. A return to simplicity might signal a return to the four-hour solo pilot ... except that the intervening decades of pilot training experience reveals that -- while a great student may be able to fly alone after such a short time under extremely controlled circumstances if absolutely nothing goes wrong -- even minor distractions, malfunctions or unforeseen environmental changes quickly erode any margin of safety. Instructors have a professional and moral obligation to make sure students are ready for whatever may occur on that first solo flight.In the late 1980s a rewrite of FAR 61 codified those items on which a student pilot must be trained before solo endorsements are signed and afterward shirt-tails are clipped. The result is that "first solo" often does not come until after 12, 15 or even 20 hours of dual instruction in structured Part 141 or 142 training programs. Pilots learning to fly under less stringent Part 61 rules can still solo as early as the instructor says they're ready, but only after they have logged training in 15 task areas.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/features/leading-edge-7-fifteen-things