Site Map
Subscribe
Private Pilot
Learn to Fly
Instrument Pilot
7 day IFR Rating
IFR Adventure
Commercial Pilot
Multi-Engine Pilot
Human Factors/CRM
Recurrent Training
Ground Schools
Articles
Privacy Policy
About Me
Keyword:
|
At least weekly, I'm asked:
- I want an airline career. When should I get my multi
rating? After the private? Or after the Instrument &
Commercial?
- I'm a private pilot, single engine, and I want to buy a
light twin. Should I get my multi rating first or my Instrument
rating?
- I want to go all the way... I want to fly for an
airline. How should I proceed?
Option One - Get the Multi Add-On as soon as possible and
build time
For the individual who plans a career in aviation, this is my
recommendation. At the end of your instrument rating, if you are
still short of the 250 hours needed for the Commercial rating, build
multi time by acting as a safety pilot
for other instrument rating students until you achieve approximately
210 hours. Then begin the Commercial rating training in the
multi. The result is about 75-175 hours of multi-engine
time.
Option Two - Get the Multi Add-On at the end
This option is for the individual who doesn't have a lot of
money. The result is about 10-15 hours of multi.
Now What?
Even if you don't have a lot of money, consider following the "Option
One" path described above. The reason is that the incremental
cost of obtaining the multi time during training that you will
accomplish anyway is small.
Jim, a 33-year old private pilot with 100 hours is trying to find the
best way to accomplish his ratings to be prepared for his airline
career. In this scenario, we'll compare the true costs of going with
Option One that I recommend. Some costs are identical no matter
which option you choose. Those costs are not included in the comparison
worksheet below because we want to determine the difference in cost
between the two options. Those costs which are identical whether
you chose Option One or Option Two are:
- Checkride costs
- Ground instruction, ground schools, textbooks
- The 15 hour multi add-on transition in Option Two is the
same cost as the
10 hour multi and 5 hour single add-on transitions in Option One.
We'll follow Jim's career as he follows my recommendation and chooses
Option One. Consider the following spreadsheet.
Note that Jim paid $21,500 to go with Option One while the cost for
Option Two is $13,360. The difference is $8,140 which is Jim's
incremental cost of obtaining his training as multi engine. He
needed the training anyway to accomplish his goal so it means he got
150 hours of multi time for $8,140 or an incremental cost of
$54.26/hour. The faster you get it done, the less it costs you.
Your next most likely step after obtaining your rating using either
option is to do the CFI ratings. You will be very pleased if you
chose Option One (Multi Engine Instrument) because when you are ready
for your CFI-MEI Multi engine instructor rating, you won't have to buy
additional multi time because you'll already have 15 hours of multi-PIC
you need to begin the MEI training. The folks that chose Option
Two will have to buy 15 hours of multi time (at a cost of $2,550 to
$3,150) before they even start their MEI training. That reduces
your incremental cost of choosing Option One to $5,000 or $33/hour for
that 150 hours you paid for your initial training.
After you get all your CFI ratings, you'll have approximately 300 total
hours. Here's the resume of the folks that chose either option:
Option One - Multi Engine Instrument
|
Option Two - Single Engine Instrument
|
Jim's total time:
300 hrs total time
160 hrs multi engine
|
Poor CFI's total time:
300 hrs total time
40 hrs multi engine
|
Can you guess which one got a job as a CFI first?
Jim. He was immediately more attractive to flight schools than
the folks that chose Option Two and only have 40 hours of multi.
After a year of being a flight instructor, both pilots taught single
and multi engine students. Each pilot got 40 hours of multi
engine instruction during their short CFI career. This is the
resume of the pilots who chose each option:
Option One - Multi Engine Instrument
|
Option Two - Single Engine Instrument
|
Jim's total time:
1200 hrs total time
200 hrs multi engine
|
Poor CFI's total time:
1200 hrs total time
80 hrs multi engine
|
Guess which one was just hired by an airline? Jim. The
other CFI will have to work another year to get 200 multi hours to be
competitive for airline applicants. Either that or he's going to
have to buy the 120 hours of multi time that he needs but probably
can't afford it after a year of being a CFI.
A year later, Jim was promoted to Captain at his airline and the poor
CFI finally got enough multi time to be competitive in his applications
to airlines. Here are their resumes:
Option One - Multi Engine Instrument
|
Option Two - Single Engine Instrument
|
Jim's total time:
2000 hrs total time
200 hrs multi engine
800 hrs jet-multi engine turbine
|
Poor CFI's total time:
1800 hrs total time
200 hrs multi engine
|
Guess which one made more money this last year? Jim. Guess
which one made more money over their career? Jim.
In summary, if you're looking for an airline career. Definitely
chose Option One:
Remember... nothing is getting cheaper as time goes on. Start
today and get it done. And the faster you get it done, the less
it costs
you.
What
You Said
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 01:37:38 Name = Ken G
Comments = Finally Someone who sees the real benfit in getting it done
by Option One. My flight instructor has been trying to sell me on
Option Two. I have 360 TT as private pilot, and my goal is to fly
regionals only @ 48 yrs. Thanks for the breakdown, I can now forward
this information to my knucklehead CFII. Blue Skies, Ken
[Reply: Your CFII is probably
trying to get it for you the cheapest possible way. Perhaps he's not an
CFII/MEI so he can't do the multi-instrument route. Nonetheless,
you're time is limited, so push forward. Actually... time is limited
for everyone, but some folks will still try to go the cheap route and
end up paying more in the long run.]
Date: Saturday, 5 February, 2011, 10:59
AM Name = juan
Comments = i got to tell you Darren, you're so right about this. That
is why i am picking XXXXXXX flight school
Date: Monday, 20 February, 2012
20:12 Name
= Tom R
Comments = I'm glad i found this Darren. At 46 years old, I'm only a
few hours into my private but hoping to be done in 7 weeks. When I
mentioned this scenario/route at a school I was looking at, they looked
at me like I was clueless. I'm glad to see my intuition based on some
research was correct. It's going to be uphill anyway so I'd like to cut
out any additional time not necessary and increase my marketability.
Thanks again.
Your Thoughts...
|
|
