[jbravo65]

Question out to all you professional pilots and CFI's. If you had 1500 tt with a comm multi instrument rating but little multi time, would you pay for the cfi, cfii and mei in ratings or would you spend the same money and buy the multi time in order to make yourself hireable?

[Chris250]

Question out to all you professional pilots and CFI's. If you had 1500 tt with a comm multi instrument rating but little multi time, would you pay for the cfi, cfii and mei in ratings or would you spend the same money and buy the multi time in order to make yourself hireable?

Honestly, if I were you I would get a job flying twins so I wouldn't have to pay for either. Places like Flight Express or Ram Air Freight would be good(I don't know a whole lot about the company just to let you know) starting out in singles and then upgrading to a baron or some other light twin. I'm pretty sure they are hiring right now. However, out of your two options...I would go with the cfi's. Who knows when companies will start hiring again and you should be able to find work relatively easy instructing while making a decent salary. Plus, they will look better on a resume and give you much more experience. Hope that helps a bit.

[mshunter]

Question out to all you professional pilots and CFI's. If you had 1500 tt with a comm multi instrument rating but little multi time, would you pay for the cfi, cfii and mei in ratings or would you spend the same money and buy the multi time in order to make yourself hireable?

with 1500 hours on tap, i would go for the multi time. even with 1500 hours on tap, if only a small portion of that is multi time, say 50, most places wont even consider you. but the CFI's are still extreamly valuble. I would get the CFI, and find a school that will help you with an MEI, and suck the multi time off of them. that way if you dont get that job, you'll have some money left over to build a little more multi time.

[jbravo65]

Thanks for the replys guys. I've been going back and fourth on this decision for the last 2 months now. I've already taken the cfi, cfii and foi written tests and got them out of the way. I was hoping I could just buy the multi time as that would be a lot more fun than studying and preparing for yet another rating. I was thinking about going to American Flyers just to get it done quicker but since I have my own Skylane that I can train in and a good instructor here at home, I'll probably just get the cfi done here while continuing to rent the twin to build multi time.

If there are any mei's out there who wants to split the cost of a Seneca or Seminal near central Cali let me know!

[mshunter]

Thanks for the replys guys. I've been going back and fourth on this decision for the last 2 months now. I've already taken the cfi, cfii and foi written tests and got them out of the way. I was hoping I could just buy the multi time as that would be a lot more fun than studying and preparing for yet another rating. I was thinking about going to American Flyers just to get it done quicker but since I have my own Skylane that I can train in and a good instructor here at home, I'll probably just get the cfi done here while continuing to rent the twin to build multi time.

If there are any mei's out there who wants to split the cost of a Seneca or Seminal near central Cali let me know!

[Redbaronahp]

A lot of good discussion here, but I'll add my two cents. I have my CFI, CFII, and MEI and I think they are extremely valuable. I flight instructed part time for a year and full time for a year. I then went to work for Ram Air Freight to build multi time. The time I spent at Ram Air was beneficial because I was out there in all weather conditions having to make tough PIC decisions while hand flying the aircraft. I gained a lot of experience and knowledge flying at Ram Air. I left Ram Air with 2500 total, 1000 PIC multi, honed instrument skills, and a lot of good stories. After upgrading to Captain in an ATR with Mountain Air Cargo I have found the CFI experience very valuable. As Captain I have to constantly monitor both the aircraft and the FOs, and depending on their experience and knowledge level teach them a thing or two. Being able to juggle the role of PIC and supervisor is extremely important, so my CFI and single pilot experience has been extremely handy.

No matter where you want to go in the industry to get from a low time pilot to the hours needed for what you want would probably require getting the CFI to build flight time. That or banner tow or fly traffic watch. Now that there aren't a lot of companies hiring I'd recommend getting the CFI, CFII, and MEI to build hours. The experience gained flight instructing will be well worth it.

The only other comment is that after I had been instructing for a little while I interviewed with a charter flight company and was told that my 1200 hours at that time didn't count because 800 were flight instructing. The interviewer told me that I only had 400 hours hands on flying experience and to come back when I had more actual flight experience. That is what led me to Ram Air.

[highalti2d]

The only other comment is that after I had been instructing for a little while I interviewed with a charter flight company and was told that my 1200 hours at that time didn't count because 800 were flight instructing. The interviewer told me that I only had 400 hours hands on flying experience and to come back when I had more actual flight experience. That is what led me to Ram Air.

Everyone's got good comments and I tend to agree. My first 135 company told me that they hired me because I hadn't done any instructing, that was at 1000TT. Their view was the same view that you had also heard.

Cape Air is probably another outfit to look into, BTW, just thought I'd throw that out there, I've got some friends working there who seem very happy with it. Have a look at it.

[jbravo65]

Everyone's got good comments and I tend to agree. My first 135 company told me that they hired me because I hadn't done any instructing, that was at 1000TT. Their view was the same view that you had also heard.

Cape Air is probably another outfit to look into, BTW, just thought I'd throw that out there, I've got some friends working there who seem very happy with it. Have a look at it.

Ok. So, back to my original question: If you had 1500 tt sel as a private pilot with a commercial multi inst rating with only 2 hrs multi pic time, would you spend the time and the money toward cfi, cfii and mei training or just use that time and money to simply build about 50 hrs multi time?

Or....get the cfi for the resume and buy the multi time

[cospilot]

Ok. So, back to my original question: If you had 1500 tt sel as a private pilot with a commercial multi inst rating with only 2 hrs multi pic time, would you spend the time and the money toward cfi, cfii and mei training or just use that time and money to simply build about 50 hrs multi time?

Or....get the cfi for the resume and buy the multi time

Wow! You got a lot of replies to your question. And I understand how perplexing it can be. CFI or MEI?

Well I think the reason you got some many different responses was because there are so many different ways to do it. Which leads me to say, and you probably don't want to hear it, but...you have to decide for yourself how you want to do it. And believe me, the way you need to go will show itself.

Personally, I went the MEI route but was lucky to land a fantastic job at AriBen Aviator where all I did was multi-engine instructing. It worked for me because of the area I was in. A very good friend of mine though is really struggling to get his multi-engine time, so he went to AriBen and bought his time. And yet another friend of mine skipped the whole CFI route and found a job as a freight dog and moved his way up into a King Air.

So keep looking, evaluate your financial situation and your time-frame. Pick a path and stick with it. You will have your multi-engine time before you know it.

P.S. Though a CFI rating is important for your skills, the airlines don't put a whole lot of weight on it during the decision making process, mind you, it doesn't hurt either, but what they want to know are the WHOLE package. And don't even think of buy jet transition training. It's is a waste of time and money. You can hear what I have to say about that here: http://tinyurl.com/8ggv54

[jbravo65]

Wow! You got a lot of replies to your question. And I understand how perplexing it can be. CFI or MEI?

Well I think the reason you got some many different responses was because there are so many different ways to do it. Which leads me to say, and you probably don't want to hear it, but...you have to decide for yourself how you want to do it. And believe me, the way you need to go will show itself.

Personally, I went the MEI route but was lucky to land a fantastic job at AriBen Aviator where all I did was multi-engine instructing. It worked for me because of the area I was in. A very good friend of mine though is really struggling to get his multi-engine time, so he went to AriBen and bought his time. And yet another friend of mine skipped the whole CFI route and found a job as a freight dog and moved his way up into a King Air.

So keep looking, evaluate your financial situation and your time-frame. Pick a path and stick with it. You will have your multi-engine time before you know it.

P.S. Though a CFI rating is important for your skills, the airlines don't put a whole lot of weight on it during the decision making process, mind you, it doesn't hurt either, but what they want to know are the WHOLE package. And don't even think of buy jet transition training. It's is a waste of time and money. You can hear what I have to say about that here: http://tinyurl.com/8ggv54

Cospilot, thanks for the input. Its well taken and the website on jet transitions traning is great. I already saved it to my favorites for future reference.