Originally Posted by
Yoda2
In my case I felt it better to do the MEI as initial, and did. Many others have as well. At the time the ME was the last class rating I had received and was currently flying. I reasoned that if I was current, competent and had a head full of a particular twin, including all its gouge and gotcha's, why not? It worked out fine and got me over that hump. This might work out well for Stef also, especially with her right seat time in the twins.
I'm not dismissing her twin time. She has money concerns, and getting an MEI is not going to be an immediate money maker. It'll be harder for her to find clients. And if she goes freelance, she'll need to focus in on clients with twins, and those who have twins already have their multi-engine certificate. Or she can work for a flight school with a twin...which comes with that $9/hour job that she can't afford to take.
Look around any ramp at any airport. There are a vastly huge number of single-engine planes than twins. Nobody starts flight training in a twin. You got to get that instructor certificate that will produce money. It's not at the twin level. She can run 4-6 single-engine students in a day. I'm willing to bet she may be able to run 1-2 multi-engine students in a week. When she makes enough money with single-engine, she'll want that instrument add-on. The twin should be her least concern at this point.