I’ve just read in the US AOPA mag that the average time to get Part 61 certification is 105.1 hours.
It seems incredibly high for a PPL, so I wonder if it includes a lot of people doing IRs which are still Part 61.
The UK average is variously claimed to be 55-65hrs for a PPL.
Sounds very high. I always remembered something in the 70-75 hour range for the US.
Whichever number it is, it might mean one of two things (or both):
1. FAA student pilots are not in hurry to get their PPL, since flying on a student’s certificate puts very few limitations on them.
2. US flight instruction is no better than in Europe.
It does sound very high based on my US experience.
That said, I would agree with boscomantico’s point that the US scene is not particularly concerned with hours to reach certain milestones – people often learn in their own plane and/or with an independent flight instructor. Sometimes more than one, perhaps in spurts, and generally close to home. I’d have to check my old logbook to know how many hours I had when I passed the private checkride – I don’t know. Maybe that is representative (?)
Couldn’t agree more! High time indeed!
My ultimate goal during IR training was that I would never have to fly their training aircraft again so I took the exam right on reaching the minimum number of hours 
Very high. No wonder many people shy away if they hear such hours and then make the calculation.
Just checked my log: I got my PPL at 36:29 hours and 197 landings in 1983.
Should leaf through old logbooks more often… the next flight after my PPL was the ferry with my own C150. Treasured memories.
I had about 180 hours when I got my gliders licence. But then again, I started age 13 and was not allowed to take the test before the age of 17. I had plenty of time in the afternoons after school and my parents towed me, whenever there was good weather to fly. Great times.
We don’t charge the gliders by the hours though.
There is something wrong with that 105hr figure. I have been in the US system and it is pretty well organised and efficient and produces pilots who are competent enough to jump into a plane and fly from A to B.
I have met several 100+hr PPLs but they were mostly old ladies who just enjoyed flying with “young virile” instructors
I took something like 60hrs, at age 43. The figure increases with age and there is a (scarily accurate) formula for how long you will take
No wonder many people shy away if they hear such hours and then make the calculation.
True, but 100 hours in the US surely must be about the same price as 50 hours in the average EASA country?
There is something wrong with that 105hr figure. I have been in the US system and it is pretty well organised and efficient and produces pilots who are competent enough to jump into a plane and fly from A to B.
Yes, but only within the US. If any US pilot (even an experienced one) had to go from Munich to Losinj, or Hamburg to Paris, he would go completely in tilt. Most US pilots never venture abroad in their life as a pilot. Can’t compare the two.
