mike69

Hi all.

I'm new the civilian side, so sorry for the stupid questions up front.

Me: military guy, commercial, instrument, SINGLE-ENGINE land. I've got maybe 50 hours of twin engine turbine time, but it's from 5 years ago and I never updated my license w/ it. Flew the F16 after that so I lost my window of opportunity to add the multi.

My question: How much time/money will it cost to add multi-engine CFII to my license? What's the best/quickest way to do this?

Just looking for advice, and thanks for the help.

rickair7777

First off, the CFI ratings are broken out as follows:

CFI - Airplane: This allows you to teach Private, Commercial, ATP, and CFI applicants. It also allows you to provide the specific instrument training required for the Private. The CFI-A can be obtained in two flavors, single engine or multi. A Single engine CFI-A is commonly referred to as a "CFI". A multi-engine CFI-A is commonly referred to as an "MEI".

CFI - Instrument (aka "CFII"): This allows you to provide the specific training for the instrument rating, as well as conducting instrument currency and IPC training. If you get the CFII in an airplane, it is valid for BOTH single and multi engine aircraft regardless of which type aircraft you earned it in (assuming you are rated in the aircraft you wish to teach in). Most people earn it in a single-engine to save money.

"Initial" CFI: This is the first instructor rating you earn...commonly it is the CFI ( airplane/single engine), but it could be an MEI or a CFII. The standards are informally a bit higher on the first one, and you have to cover some additional material and take a test on instruction theory.

In your case, since you need the commercial multi add-on, do the ME rating first, then do the MEI. If you wanted to save a few bucks you could then get the CFII in a light single, but since you would have to learn a whole new airplane it might be simpler to just stay in the twin for the CFII.


A ME add-on would probably run 3-6K$

An MEI would probably run $2-4K.

I would guess the CFII initial in a light single would run $1.5-3K, assuming you need to get familiar with the airplane first. In a twin about $2-3K.

the King

Also depends on your instrument proficiency as the ME add-on will require some instrument work, and of course the CFII.

mike69

Sounds good! Thanks for the help.