Comm-mei/individual courses

[meyers9163]

I've posted alot about going through a pro course but I was wondering what the price is roughly for a comm-mei with like 100 hours of time building? Would you recommend against or for finishing ratings out before you attend or just plan on going IFR-MEI? Right now I'm finishing my senior year at college and ppl. I figure I will have my ppl done by september and start an IFR there after.... But then I was not sure if I'd have enough time for anything after the IFR. Also does Ariben only hire those who have gone through the pro course or would someone still be considered if they did comm-mei? Any advice would be great.

Thank you!

[Catherine]

You would probably need to call the school and ask for a quote on the individual course(s) with the 100 hours of timebuilding, I don't really know what the pricing is for that. I would definitely balance that and what you can get ratings for back home and your timeframe in being able to do them there. If you do the IFR under Part 61 don't forget you have to have quite a few hours of cross-country time in addition to just the PPL rating where here under 141 you do the IFR first then timebuild to get your cross-country time for the commercial rating. It lets you have a good bit of time practicing your IFR and/or VFR navigating skills rather than doing it all VFR or paying for an instructor to go with you under IFR before the checkride as it would be under 61. As I mentioned to someone else, if you don't get to fly frequently, you'll probably end up spending more hours working on that IFR rating than you would if you fly pretty much everyday. I was able to complete mine in just about .7 hours over the minimum syllabus requirement for the IFR course here, which I think is 40.3 hours and mine was like right near 41 hours for it.

Instrument is probably one of the most frustrating to learn as there are so many new procedures to learn, you're learning to brief plates and setup approaches and doing everything under the hood or in the clouds. I definitely would want to do it fairly compressed as I did here just so I wasn't having to relearn too much over and over. Being here frees up your time to study and fly much quicker, IMHO. It's also one of the most rewarding ratings to get when you're finished and I'd go IFR somewhere new over VFR just about anytime, especially if there are several airports around.

As so many people say, if you can save money up rather than taking out the loan while you finish up school after your PPL, definitely do that so that you have to borrow as little as possible (if you are looking at the loan route).