I have my private pilot certificate and I am planning to attend a college/141 flight school this summer. I plan to get my instrument through CFII. My questions is...I have already 155 hour of TT. When I am done with my instrument, I will be at about 190 hours. Will I be able to get my commercial with the 190 requirement or will I have to build time to get the 250 to satisfy the part 61 requirement? I ask this because I heard that you need 120 hours of 141 training in order to be eligible for the 190 hour commercial certificate. I will only have about 35 hours. Thanks.

 

Based on your last comment, I'd say you'll need to do 120 under 141 to qualify for 141. 61, and 250, might actually save you money.

 

I was actually in a VERY similar situation, and I was not eligible to take my Comm ride under 141. Remember that you CAN use up to 50 hours of FTD time towards that 250 total (i.e. 200 hrs flight time + 50 hours FTD = OKAY).

Good luck! I really enjoyed commercial training.

 

Thats good news. I think I will get about 10 hours of FTD time so I will only need about 30 hours of time building. PCATD doesn't fall into the FTD category correct?

 

That is correct.

 

At this point part 141 will no longer be an good financial option for you. It will be cheaper for you to complete under part 61 to 250 hours, flight and FTD time. Continue with your commercial training and time building to about 220 hours. At about 225 hours start your multi-engine instrument training. When you reach 245 hours or so, go back to the single and brush up. Take the commercial single at 250 hours, take a refresh flight in the multi, and the commercial multi at 253 hours. If you are right at 250 hours, make sure your logbook book is very accurate. Your examiner will have to stop and add the flight time up to be sure.

Then start your CFI. Complete it. When you start your CFII, do your instrument flight work in a multi so you build the multi PIC time required for the MEI while training for the CFII. Then take the CFII ride followed by the multi ride. Combining the CFII and MEI together will save you about $1000.