AbortAbortAbort

15 hours you should have or be very close to soloing...so at least you could do some solo work after that.

The main problem is still that lack of flying though.

Take a 1.0 hour flight. You spend .3-.4 just getting out there and back depending on how big your airport is and how busy the airspace around it is. That leaves .6-.7 of real training. Only 36-42 minutes. That's not much if you consider that you could spend half that reviewing stuff.

Of course this is my opinion...I do not know you or how fast you pick up material. You could have no problem flying once a week (people do it).

But the graph Cubdriver posted definitely gives you some ideas of the potential challenges involved.

Tweetdrvr

ColbyS,

One of early private students when I first started teaching took several long breaks from flying and it did not hurt her progress too badly.

Reason 1: She had good consistency to solo

Reason 2: She did a lot of chairflying as others have mentioned

Reason 3: She had some innate ability to just adapt.

Therefore, we spent very little time reviewing, because she always had a good feel for the runway and could always land.

I think once you solo, you can maintain a decent skill level that will prevent regression and minimize time spent reviewing with good chair flying @ 2 hrs per week --the whole lesson, pre flight walkaround, start, taxi, all the radio calls, out the area, stalls and steep turns and slow flight and back to the airport in about an hour. Two or three days later, do the same thing, but this time chairfly nothing but circuits around the pattern from the takeoff, turn to cross wind, carb heat, and all that to several touch and goes and imagine yourself fixing errors too, not just the perfect patterns.

This will hopefully allow you to preserve some muscle memory/brain memory for procedures.

Then jump into another big block when time and money permits. You could fly once a month just to keep things warm while you saved money after solo, just doing stalls, steep turns and landings, then knock out all the navigation stuff for your dual and solo cross countries at one time, then idle again until you've passed the written and are ready for the ground eval portion of the checkride, then go all out again with a big ten hour push to the checkride.

Your CFI may not like it, but is your training, your money, and your time, and you are the customer.

Good luck!!

Emb170man

I CFI'd for a few years before going to the airlines. Ask your instructor if he has any other students about where you are or slightly ahead of you in training. If you are flying a 4-place plane, ask to backseat a few lessons if the other student doesn't mind. It's free and allows you to take a step back and watch someone else donut, learn from their mistakes, and take away their good practices. Save you some time in the air later when you are paying!

plane4

When I started I only flew about once a month while going to high school and even took summers off to do regular kid activities. I still finished my license at 40.5 hrs with no troubles. I even remember having lots of time in the practice area being rather bored. Especially at 16 you get bored fast. Read after your lesson and before your next lesson. Practice on a home simulator.....

Grumble

Fly what you can afford, don't make it a financial burden. There is nothing that says you have to get your ticket right at 40 hours.

One lesson a week is fine, just keep your nose in the books a good 2-3 nights a week. Plus once you solo you can stop by on an afternoon and just go fly a .3 or .4 bouncing around the pattern. A cheap way to maintain some proficiency (and keep it fun).

If you're active duty:

1.) Once you get your Private ticket you can use VA and GIB money to pay for further training.

2.) Look around and see if there is a military Aero Club near by.

Dougdrvr

Don't overlook all military Aero Clubs. Just 'cause you're in the Army doesn't mean you can't belong to an Air Force Aero Club.

Grumble

Bingo. Active duty makes you eligible at any.