During my time as a full time flight instructor, most of my students (including myself when I was training) took upwards of 70-80 hours to complete their private pilot certificates. This is about twice the number of hours the FAA requires to get the rating. There were many reasons for this, the most significant being the very busy training environment.
Santa Monica airport has several flight schools and many corporate and charter operators, and it lies below the Class B veil of Los Angeles International airport. There was often a wait for takeoff and we had to fly for about 10 to 15 minutes each way to get to the local practice area. This was great for student-instructor bonding, but highly inefficient for training.
