Average flight time per lesson?

[Cluemeister]

I'm wondering what the average flight time you put in your log book for each lesson. Is it 1 hour, 1 1/2 hours, 2 hours?

I've been averaging an hour of actual flight time each lesson, and that seems a little low, that I could extend it a little. But I'm guessing there's a point of diminishing returns.

What does your logbook say when you look back at your training days?

[Jim Stewart]

I think an hour is about average. As you progress towards your checkride, you'll probably find your instructor will beat you up more and the hour will seem longer.

Someone posted some US Air Force numbers concerning a study they did on the optimum times and frequency of training. I think their flights were about an hour.

[3Dreaming]

As an instructor I find most students have peaked and are starting to head down hill at the 1 hour mark. Nothing worse than having to stop on a bad note, because you tried to extend the lesson to long.

[MrMorden]

From experience I can tell you two hours is a LONG lesson. Your ability to absorb new information declines quickly close to that length. If you are just shooting landings, that length may actually have some slight benefit as it gets your brain in a mode (e.g. - "out of the way") that might help get muscle memory down better. But you can't really learn new concepts and expect to retain them for two hours straight.

[Nomore767]

When I was a CFI an hour was long enough considering a pre-flight review before the hour in the air and a post flight review of what was accomplished during the flight lesson.

When our school had a contract to teach pilot students at the local Community College they would fly a lot more during the week than the 'regular' student and so I felt they benefitted from the greater intensity level over a shorter period of time. Consider that for 'regular' students the first 15 mins of the next lesson may just refresh the student as to where they were last time, even longer if they only flew once every two weeks. A more intense program usually means qualifying in less time and also less expensively.

The CC student picked up where they left off a lot quicker.

[HAPPYDAN]

Nearly all were 1-1.1. Exceptions were 1.5 on a cross-country, and 0.2. That 0.2 day the METAR said the ceiling was 1,500 good enough for pattern work. So we took off and ascended into pea soup at 1,000. Pattern altitude at KTIW is 1,300, so the CFI took the controls, one trip around the pattern and back down. Moral of the story - don't trust even current weather reports!

[drseti]

My flight school's curriculum is more rigidly structured than most, so YMM definitely V, but the average flight duration in a lesson comes to 1.3 hours. Each student commits to 2 three-hour sessions per week, breaking down to (on average) 1 hour of individualized tutorial (ground indtruction), 1.3 of flight, and about 3/4 of an hour for debrief. But that ratio changes throughout the curriculum. The first five pre-solo lessons (where a lot of new material is being introduced) are each kept to about 1 hour of flight time, while the next 5 (mostly pattern work) run closer to 1.5. Then in the post-solo course, those first five lessons (where we're again introducing a lot of new concepts) run about an hour of flight time, while the next five (XC training, review, solo practice, and prep for the checkride) each average about 1.6 in the air. If you total all that up, we're looking at zero to license in about 26 hours plus checkride. Quite a few students need a few more hours and lessons than that minimum, so total flight hours to license averages closer to 30.

[Flocker]

Checked my logbook this morning. I averaged 1 hour in the air followed by 30 minutes of ground.

[MrMorden]

Checked my logbook this morning. I averaged 1 hour in the air followed by 30 minutes of ground.

Sounds right. If in a lesson you fly for an hour and have a good pre-flight and post-flight briefing, it's really got to be about 1.25-1.75.