There are many people well over a 100 so at our local club 
It’s all about age. At 20 you need 20 hours. At 50 you need 50 hours.
„prior experience (basically a requirement)“: I beg to differ.
In 1990 at age 31 I earned my US-PPL during a 4 week stay at flight school in North Carolina, equalling more or less to 21 flying days. I didn‘t have any flight experience whatsoever, but was committed to the goal. It helped immensly that I was there alone without any distraction from family or job.
Is it feasable: yes. Is it for everyone: no.
A PPL in 21 flying days is possible, because if you assume prior experience (basically a requirement) you just need to ask whether it is physically possible to log the 40/45hrs: 2hrs/day. However an IR in 10 flying days is harder: 4hrs/day. I think you would definitely need prior experience and prior logged hours (e.g. the UK IMCR training).
I often see these ads: Instrument Rating in 10 days
https://www.venturenorthaviation.com/index-1.html
Peter wrote:
(this is an unspoken factor in nearly all cases of a PPL actually done in 45hrs)
Certainly was with mine. Well, not actually time as a passenger (I had never been in a light aircraft before) but I had played with MS Flight Sim on and off through my teenage years, had an interest in aviation and knew what everything on the panel was. This made a big difference in that not much needed explaining from first principles – we just got on with it.
45 hours over 147 days, April to August in the UK and I don’t recall losing a single lesson to the weather. I often flew the 6pm slot, and evenings tend to have reliable weather in the British summer – certainly fog is virtually eliminated as a risk.
I finished my ppl with a week at La Rochelle at a British flying school run by an ex naval officer. Great fun.
Anybody with talent can do a 45hr PPL in 21 flying days. Any school will happily take your money at that rate. I think my son did that, more or less (largely in my TB20), but he’s a very good pilot, had a huge number of hours (100+, around Europe) as a passenger (this is an unspoken factor in nearly all cases of a PPL actually done in 45hrs) and had a very good instructor who enjoyed putting in the time.
Whether you can do it in 21 contiguous days needs very good wx. But it is much easier than doing it over 1-2 years because you build up currency and keep it. A good pilot could probably learn to fly an F16 at a basic level, in a short time, with intensive training
In reality almost nobody does a PPL in 45hrs – because they fit it around their life.
This is obviously not possible anymore.
It may be in the US. For all classes of US certificates, training outside the US, with any authorised FI, is accepted. What I don’t know if whether a US school will generate an EASA license (you can’t do the IR outside Europe anyway) accepting training outside the EU; I would check that if it is applicable. They may not advertise it openly…
There were options in Florida, California (which I did, at Gillespie)
For many years there were ~6 in Florida and 1 in S California.
Spanish ops tended to be disorganised. I looked at these for the IR. Same in Greece.
Practically speaking, however, 45hrs in 21 flying days requires one to be young I did my FAA IR at that rate and had to sleep at lunchtime (aged 49)
I chose this route in 2012/2013 and thought it was then still pretty popular. AFAIK, this was always based on a UK PPL, which until Brexit was an EASA PPL, i.e. catering to students from all over Europe. This is obviously not possible anymore. There were options in Florida, California (which I did, at Gillespie), and Spain (Jerez). The school I did this with doesn’t market this on their website anymore (in fact, I think it has changed ownership and their fleet twice in the meantime or so).
I think these arrangements have always made sense in areas with predictable weather. Not sure there would be an appetite for such 3 week intensive courses in Northern Europe, where you could expect a significant percentage of these days to be unflyable for training. And with 3, even 4 weeks, you will want to fly every possible day.
More years ago I spent £135, and resented paying an additional £2.50) for a 30 hour UK PPL, including accommodation, at Thruxton, Hampshire.
