How long did each of your licenses take both in flight hours and just time in general? (PPL, CPL, etc)

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wannabepilot123

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How long did each of your licenses take both in flight hours and just time in general? (PPL, CPL, etc)
 
PPL
First lesson February of 2020
Checkride June of 2021
I think I had 76? total hours of flight time at checkride. Between 15-20 of those hours were flown waiting for my checkride (weathered out twice, had difficulty rescheduling, and ended up waiting almost six months between first checkride scheduled and getting it done).
 
wannabepilot123 said:
How long did each of your licenses take both in flight hours and just time in general? (PPL, CPL, etc)
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I would need to check but basically 30 days & 60 hours to get my PPL. There’s the Covid shutdown that I excluded in my calculation. Basically it was 1 week before Covid and 3 weeks after then checkride and PPL.

IR was probably 125-150 hours TT and a year or more, TT includes my PPL so minus 60 or so.

CPL right after meeting the 250 hours or so, took over a year as well, but actual training was probably 4-6 weeks with a training every week until the Checkride which took some time to get scheduled (and rescheduled due to wx) and done.
 
looks like i had 64.8 hours logged going into my PPL checkride, at 13 calendar months since my first lesson

and I started instrument training soon after my checkride. I had 162.7 hours logged going into that ride and 11 calendar months, but not all of that was training of course

I was signed off to take my multi ride in exactly 8 months. The plan broke down... A LOT... ugh. And it broke down again on my way to take the checkride. Looks like I had 12.5 hours multi logged at that point. Ugh, still a thorn that I never got that ticket.

Never finished the work for my CPL either, so no stats for that.... :(
 
Hengelo said:
"Comparison is the thief of joy"
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Yep there’s no need to compare things like this. What someone might be able to complete in a few months, might take others a year or more. Everyone learns at a different pace and even a different style.
 
Learning styles aside, everyone comes to this with a different bag of skills, experience and resources. One student may have come from a family of pilots (or dentists!) where money and experience are abundant, another may be working nights and weekends with no family in sight.

Circumstances differ; are you in Arizona where the school has a giant fleet of identical planes or northern Minnesota where the one plane is out for MX every month and the weather is atrocious?
 
Ed Haywood said:
PPL. 40 hours over 3 months. Back in the olden days when that was the norm.
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Similar here. I had 10.3 hours when I soloed and 41 hours / 8 months when I took my checkride. Back in 2007, not quite the "old days" but it was more normal then than it is now.

RyanB said:
Yep there’s no need to compare things like this. What someone might be able to complete in a few months, might take others a year or more. Everyone learns at a different pace and even a different style.
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Yes, while everyone has different availability and learns at different rates, over the years there is a trend for it to take longer both in calendar time and hours. It's worth discussing some of the reasons why, as it may help prospective pilots manage some of the potential hurdles.
 
There is also the question of the written. A lot of people barrel through the fun part (the flying) and then bog down on the written. A lot never complete.
 
Private:
40 hours. Started end of July. Signed off in October. Did oral of check ride in November (weather issues) and finished in January

Instrument:
Check ride at about 104 hours, 50.0 XC 40.2 instrument. 16 months after private ride.

Then flew a Cherokee like crazy and wasnt ever planning on going further. Two years later got my commercial and CFI in May and October respectively. Well over 500 hours when I did that. Knocked those out in about 20 hours each.
 
it takes as long as it takes. it's not a race.

Private: 48 hours over the course of a little more than 5 months. (had passed the written before the first lesson... back in the day it really was a written test)
 
I agree about comparison, but its nice to know most of us need more than the FAA minimum.
 
I did my private in about 42 hours, but that was 31 years ago at a pretty quiet GA airport, flying 2-3 times a week over four months.

After getting your private, it's not very easy to say how long it takes to get a subsequent certificate or rating. For example, most of my 61.129 aeronautical experience requirements were already met before I ever formally started my commercial training. So maybe 8-10 hours? Or 30? I don't know. Same applies for an instrument rating. I did a lot of safety piloting and simulated instrument flying with a non-CFII safety pilot during my formal training. I probably had 80 hours of instrument time by the time I got around to my instrument check ride. But probably only had about 30 hours of instrument training. So how do I answer your question?
 
My logbook started when I was 12, so 80+ hours and 5 years for my Private.

10 hours of instruction and 250 TT for my Commercial.

Then another 30 hours of instruction for the Instrument (all of my instrument instruction through the Commercial counted.) At that time, 200 TT was required for an instrument rating.
 
It will take what it takes. For those who think there’s a shortcut to a high paying job, there is none.

Having said that, the best value (neither fastest nor quickest but most boxes ticked) is fixed wing military aviator. Finish the program and it’s a trip to the test center for FAA military competency exam. By the time your time is up, you’ll have been paid to train, paid to get experience, and paid to build the network of folks that will walk your resume in to the Chief Pilot’s office.

Can’t afford college? Get a scholarship or appointment and be paid to go to school.
 
About 75 hours for PPL, but a chunk of that was proving myself to an out-of-state CFI to sign off so I could get a DPE scheduled in less than 90-120 days. I had already been through checkride prep at my primary school, but the DPE wait was long enough to warrant doing it again to get it completed sooner.

Went sideways buying a Bonanza, so now paralleling the insurance requirements and IR training. Probably will be close to 175 by the checkride.

I started in mid-January '24, got PPL in September. I've covered all of the required IR flight time, so now focusing on checkride prep.

Swapping between the Bonanza and the Cherokee I'll use for the IR checkride has extended the time, but it's allowed me to fly in a wide range of conditions and situations, and in very different planes. IMO, this is better for training you to think about what you're doing, rather than everything being specific to one plane and one airport.
 
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Ppl,March-September 2023.Im thinking about 60
Hr but I did a lot of solo “fun flying”,Solo was just under 7 hr
 
40 hours and 5 weeks in the same old days previously mentioned.

Flew every day after work. Very typical back then.
 
Great comments here. It is helpful to see the varied responses. I will say that everyone's journey is different...and different variables cause different results.
For me, I completed my flight training for my school at 79.9 hrs. Right after my training, my dad passed away as I was waiting for a checkride. It took me 20.4hrs beyond that to finally complete my checkride for my PPL. This included 2 full checkrides, in which the first one expired before I could finish 3 manuevers (so I had to redo the entire ground/oral and practical).

My experience is extremely different. I work full time and I flew part-time. I also was a full-time caregiver to my dad who had dementia and stomach cancer, so a lot of my time was dedicated to him and my mom (she also was his caregiver). I trained at an airport that was 40miles away from me (one-way) and it was a busy one! And I did not have a Sallie Mae loan, so it was all out-of-pocket for me.

All of these factors contributed to the amount of hours I put in for my PPL, as there were about 4 months that I had to stop training to take care of pops. After he passed, I also needed time to get myself together, as it was a very emotional time, as he was a major source of my strength.

I don't regret any steps that I took and would not go about it any other way. I will say that the student pilot I was at 50hrs was an extremely different student pilot at 100.3hrs when I finished. I'm very proud of the hours of flight that I have and the fact that I was able to take 2 full checkrides, because for me, it proved that I wanted it enough and made me focus on doing it better the second time around.

Don't ever let anyone make you feel a certain type of way when discussing "who did what and when" and with how many hours, because it legit doesn't matter. What matters is how you behave in the sky after you get that PPL and what you do beyond that...
 
I started as a poor college student working the line at a local GA airport. At the end of the spring semester, I had scraped together enough money for a discovery flight ($50 at the time).

It was electrifying, and life-changing... And rather than continue in my "survival" mode, barely making enough money to pay tuition and rent (and buying food based on maximizing calories per penny), I left school and got a job as an over the road truck driver. Money started flowing in much more quickly, and after a few more months I was able to start flight training for real. Ignoring that first flight, it was 3 months to get my private, flying like mad every other weekend because that's the only time I was home. Including the intro flight, there were 42.6 hours in my logbook at the checkride.

I started my instrument, but then my CFII left for the airlines. I found another CFII - He was brand new but VERY good, but between being new and really wanting to be thorough, instrument took me a while... And I wasn't a very good student the way I had been when training for my private. All told, I had 100 hours of instrument time and 283.7 hours of total time when I took my Instrument checkride, about 3 years after my Private ride.

I started dabbling for my commercial after that, but I was mostly flying a 182 and at the time you still needed complex for commercial. I was also in a flying club and didn't really like renting, but the club didn't have a complex airplane... So I was stuck renting Arrows, which I just wasn't as good at flying because I didn't fly them often. I kept looking at other options and asking questions and hemming and hawing... What finally did it was @tonycondon calling me up and saying "Kent, I'm not doing anything this weekend, get your <behind> out here and let's finish up your commercial!" I had long since taken the written and knocked out the various requirements, it was just a matter of learning all the maneuvers in the R182. So, the Comm-ASEL was a 3-day weekend and 9.7 hours, including the flight(s) to and from Des Moines for the checkride. It was about 2 1/2 years after the Instrument and I was up to 667 hours of total time. It was all an excellent experience. Thanks Tony!!!

Finally, I did the comm-AMEL add-on with Tom Brady - No, not that Tom Brady - in the mighty Apache in Michigan. Tom has ratings down to a science and while I did have a few hours of multi time, none of it was training and none of it was in an Apache. 2 days, 7.4 hours, including the checkride, about six weeks after the Comm-ASEL with 691TT.

As has been stated, everyone's journey is different. I wasn't in full-on training mode, I enjoyed actually using my certificate from day one. By the time I got my instrument, I'd flown from my home base in Wisconsin at least as far as Texas and back. By the time I had my commercial I'd been to all three coasts (east, west, gulf) and ~35 states. By the time I had 750 hours of total time (AKA halfway to ATP), I already had all of the other requirements for ATP (500 XC, 250 PIC, 100 night, 75 instrument) done and then some. It was valuable real-world experience.

Of course, now I'm sitting at 2900ish total time, and still don't have my ATP.
 
PPL was maybe 40-60? CPL and IR were closer to 150. ATP was whenever I got around to it, probably around 2300 hrs. No clue how many hours I have now, other than my mil hrs, don't keep a civilian logbook
 
PPL was about a year, 80 hours. I started in high school, had to switch instructors which made me start over, then finished in college, which made me start over again!

Instrument, about 15 years from start to finish. I'm a procrastinator extraordinaire, and had 249 hours total time, 41 hours instrument. Actually had to take the IR written 3 times, kept letting it expire.

Commercial 6 months later, 280 hours total time. When I got my IR at 249 hours figured I had the hours, might as well add the certificate. Never realized the doors it would open later.

Multi a year later. An opportunity presented itself to get it, 8 hours multi.

CFI a year after that, then CFII.

I always say I worked my way into flying backwards. I only finished my instrument because I had a long cross country planned and didn't want to get stuck. I only got my commercial because I met all the requirements, why not? Only got the multi because a friend said I could borrow his twin. Things just kind of fell into my lap.

While I work in aviation, I never planned to make flying a career option. I still keep all my tickets current, although I am not currently employed as a pilot. I hope to one day change that.
 
About a year of elapsed time and 75 flight hours working fulltime+ and training one day a week PNW weather permitting.
Things sped up after solo when I wasn't dependent on CFI availability.
 
Bob Noel said:
it takes as long as it takes. it's not a race.
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Sums it up. If you're older, it will take longer. If you can keep the same good CFI who knows how to teach it will take less time. I think the average number of hours is 60-70.

So... Plan for 75, and you might be done early. It took me 70 something hours. Did 20 hours, moved cities for job, restarted training 1 1/2 years later. Got my PPL at age 59.

Remember, getting the PPL just means you can continue to practice without having to have a CFI sign you off for solo. PPL at 40 hours and PPL at 70 hours is about the same compared to the experience and skill you'll have at 250 or 500 hours. Net net, "It doesn't matter - It takes as long as it takes". Go have fun!
 
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The calendar rather than my logbook has been the factor determining speed of progression so far. So, I'll get to 1,500 hours wa-aa-ay before I can obtain an ATP. But I do think that it is much easier to devote blocks of time to flying when one is younger and has fewer additional constraints on one's time. And I can earn a buck or two while hanging out at the airstrip all day with a Commercial.

Soloed: 22.7 hours (age 14), Private-G: 106.6 hours (age 16), added -ASEL: 168.4 hours (17), Instrument: 200.3 (18), Commercial-G: 239.1 (18), added -ASEL: 268.7 (18), (Glider) Tow Endorsement 301.1 (19).

On list: Banner Tow, Multi, Bush, Seaplane, Turbine, ATP.
 
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If memory serves me correctly I think my private was about 47 hours and a little under 1 year while flying on average probably 3 times per month (was in college and working so didn't have much spare time).

Was planning to do the instrument rating shortly after but life got in the way and it was about 5 more years before I finally got that started. Total time at checkride was about 175, with I think just barely over 40 total instrument time. IFR I was flying quite a bit more, 1-2 times per week with a couple breaks while I was traveling. I was signed off maybe 4-5 months in but had to reschedule check ride a couple times due to weather and plane availability so I think it was about 7 months after beginning the training before I had the rating. Give or take a bit.

ASES took me about 2 days and ~4-5 hours at Southern Seaplane in Belle Chasse, LA. RIP Lyle Panepinto

That's all the ratings I've got so far, but flying is a passion for me not a career. Will do Comm/CFI and others at some point to be a better pilot, maybe instruct a bit part time in the future but I'm in no rush or trying to build time fast to get hired or anything.
 
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Makes a difference if part 141 or 61? The 61 school here figures around 80 hours from the start and may take longer. From talking to a couple of CFI's that school uses an examiner that basically holds to commercial for a private.
 
PPL around 70 hours and 6 months. I was delayed a lot by winter, trying to find flyable weather to finish my solo XC requirements. The IR was right around the bare minimum of 40 hours in 3-4 months, all in-aircraft, and much of it in actual. By the time I got to the check ride I was waaaaaaaaaay over-prepared. Earning the IR was lots of fun. We flew under the hood or in actual to airports all over the northeast, making approaches along the way for torture (fun) to accumulate the necessary hours. We got to make a lot of real in-flight weather decisions and diversions, too. Good experience.

SInce then (1989), I've done a lot of IPCs and IFR flying has completely changed in character, much for the better (and safer). When I learned IFR, I still had an ADF and could fly approaches with it. I had two crappy NAV-12s whose needle movements tended to stick, or the OBS went out of alignment. And I had a new-fangled positional awareness device, an Apollo LORAN-C (now a paperweight). The LORAN-C was amazing in its day. If it said you were at the MAP, you were at the MAP. Much more accurate than the stopwatch on a VOR approach. Today, flying IFR with dual G5s, GNS-430W, coupled autopilot (even 1-axis), ADS-B and XM-WX, and a 10" EFB feels like "cheating." I'll take it. It makes single pilot IFR in your 70s doable.
 
30 years and still no Certificate. Back to flying though finally. Over 70 hrs spread over 5 years then a 25 year layoff (Life and Military movements). Back in the saddle though.

Back then had all the hours for Checkride plus the EXTRA long Cross Country (Pre-1997 change) we had to do back then.
 
I trained in 2015-2016 at 55-56 years old. 2 hot sweaty summers. I had at least 5-6 instructors during the 16 months. My last instructor was 69 years old and very wise. He was the reason I made it through. I flew about 100 hrs to get my PPL. At the beginning I was not taking it serious enough and that cost me extra hours. The last 6 months or so it was 24/7 flight training was on my mind and flew 2-3 days a week to get it done. And a lot of time off work.
 
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55 hrs, 13 months. There was a 3 month non-flying period in there.
 
I flew about 200 hrs and then started instrument training. Started at my original school and had 2 different instructors until the second one quit the school. At that point instead of starting with 3rd instructor I transferred to my home airport flight school.
I used school planes for my PPL and my own plane for instrument training. I was lucky to get a older retired airline captain at my home airport and I zoomed through with him. Overall it took 15 months or so but I did take a summer off because I don't like training when I am sweating my butt off.
I was signed off for the checkride in early Sept and because scheduling and weather(had to cancel twice because of weather) I didn't take my checkride until a week before Xmas. I had to fly with my instructor 2 more times to keep my sign off current.

I started commercial training a few years ago during covid but then my buddy CFII went back to work with SW and we haven't gotten back to it. I fly for fun, 3-5 days a week. 1600+ hrs now
 
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DClevenger said:
30 years and still no Certificate. Back to flying though finally. Over 70 hrs spread over 5 years then a 25 year layoff (Life and Military movements). Back in the saddle though.

Back then had all the hours for Checkride plus the EXTRA long Cross Country (Pre-1997 change) we had to do back then.
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Let’s get it done. ✅
 
PPL: January - June 2022
IR: January - April 2024
COM Single: April - August 2024
CFI: August - December 2024
ASES: December 2024
Com Multi: February - April 2025
 
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PPC 83 hours 2006 12-14 months IIRC
Insert 400 fun VFR hours here <<<<<<
IR Got it in the minimum course/flying time...close to 500 hours TT 6 Months
I am at 1600ish hours now...
 
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I had a Discovery Flight way back in June of 1966 at a cost of $5.00 in a Cherokee 140. I soloed in a couple of weeks in my 6th hour in that same Cherokee - taught by a retired Barnstormer. I used to help him out around the airport, and he gave me some dual in his J3 Cub. Then I went back to college and transitioned to flying a Citabria and eventually passed my checkride in December with 44 hours. I added 4 hours to my TT on that day because the airport where I met the FAA Examiner was 75 miles away.
 
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