First solos on student pilot's 16th birthday primary checkride on student pilot's 17th birthday?

N918KT

N918KT

Line Up and Wait
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I am wondering how often do first solos occur on the student pilot's 16th birthday and how often does a student pilot go for their sport/private pilot checkride on their 17th birthday?

Seems occasionally I would find on the AOPA or EAA website, or reading aviation news article that a youngster would do their first solos on their 16th birthday and take their checkride on their 17th birthday. Seems that AOPA, EAA, and other aviation websites/Facebook pages highlights these events from time to time so it seems more common than reality.
 
Had a student that I soloed on his sixteenth birthday in a 150,172 and a Cardinal RG and my boss soloed him in a Cessna 421 the same day. He did his PPL checride on his 17th Birthday.

Daddy had money
 
My (former) student soloed on his 16th birthday and is turning 17 in a week. His plan was to do his PPL/IR checkride on his birthday. Not sure where he's at with that.
 
My 13 year old son is ready to solo now, you can bet it will happen on his 16 th birthday.
 
Things were a little more lax, back when I was a kid.
I was flying solo before 16, but I had to wait for the day after my 17th Bday before I could take my check ride. I had to wait the extra day because I was born on a federal holiday.
On the plus side, I did my PPL, sea, land, sea/land high performance, sea/land complex and sea/land multi all in the same day. The FAA guy was there, and he was my instructor, so.....
 
hey shep in 1969 ish could you go for your ppl check ride at 16 .I thought id did?
 
I soloed a student last summer for her 16th birthday and she will probably be taking her checkride when she turns 17 soon...
 
I did. Back in 74.
 
My twin brother and I did this back in '85-86; solo on our 16th birthdays, private checkrides on our 17th. At 18 I did my Comm/CFI. We thought it was pretty cool at the time...
 
I inherited a student that was ready for his checkride at 14. I could not even let him do a solo, but I would have felt comfortable letting him go.

His driving force was that he wanted to be a fighter pilot. I sure hope he made it.
 
Had a friend that got his PPL, high performance sign off, multi-engine rating, TBM LOA, PBY type and multi-engine seaplane ratings all on his 16th birthday. Did help that he had about 800 hours at that point... He flew their Cub, T-6, Barron, PBY and TBM that day.
 
I had a young man in our chapter's youth program solo two days after his 16th birthday. His goal was his 16th but he didn't have a good day flying and it got postponed. He is now shooting for a check ride on his 17th birthday.
 
I did that. Started flying at 14, soloed on 16th, private on 17th. For my solo, I guess my instructor told the controllers, as they sang happy birthday over the frequency as I taxied back. Will never forget it.
 
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