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What would you recommend as the best route to take to a Commercial/Multi/Instrument?

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Commercial Pilot, Private Pilot

What would you recommend as the best route to take to a Commercial/Multi/Instrument?

I recently started flying again after a long hiatus. Right now I have my Private with about 90 hours total (20 recent), 35 x/c PIC (13 recent), 2.5 instrument (1 recent), 2.5 complex (0 recent).

My flight school operates under both Part 61 and Part 141. My school has both simple and complex singles and a twin-engine Duchess, along with a simulator. I am an engineer and a very fast study on technical aspects. To be honest, I have a lot of it figured out already. For that reason I will probably do the Instrument under Part 61 and home-study.

So my question is how would I best utilize the aircraft available to me to further both my plan to continue with my certifications and my own interest in flying faster and more complex airplanes. I want to be competent in complex single-engine aircraft and to at least have the multi ticket along with my instrument rating. I want to maximize my ROI and not spend money in an airplane that does not multi-task in relation to my goals, i.e. I do not see why I would do instrument training in a C-172 when doing it in a complex aircraft is only a few bucks more (yes, I know about the increased workload but I am will to give that a go). Money is not really the issue, I have the resources to do this at my easy pace of 2 hours/weekend flying.

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  1. Matthew Waugh on Aug 03, 2010

    A complex plane is one more knob to push in and out, and lever to pull up and down. You can get all that figured out in an hour. The trick is remembering to lower the gear when you need it, and that complacency will occur when you have a lot of complex hours, so I don’t see what you’d gain by training for your instrument in a complex plane.

    Generally speaking the only reason I would suggest you spend money is if you want multi-time, for insurance, checkout or career reasons. In which case I would get a Private multi (so you can log PIC as soon as possible) and do all the instrument and commecial training in the multi and build a boat load of hours – AND spend a boat load of cash. But if you don’t need the multi time, then obviously you leave that until you do a quick commercial add-on.

    Same goes for the complex time, if you need it for insurance or checkout reasons then by all means build that time while working on something else, but if you don’t need the time I wouldn’t spend the money.

    I wouldn’t do the instrument training in a C152 with one VOR and an ADF, so you want some reasonable set of avionics, but other than that I’d say cheaper is better, because then you can save the money for some later purchase – like that VLJ you’ve always wanted.

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