Uncle Bose

...how the Seminole upgrade works? I heard that a non-MEI basically need not spend a dime for the rating as long as he/she is a full time instructor.

TankerDriver

When I left in May of '02, they were not giving out MEI's for free. You had to get it on your own. Now, if they used their brains, which at nearly 4 years later they just may be, they'd give you your 5 hours of PIC during the in-house standardization upgrade and sign you off for a DE ride on your dime. I would have no problems paying $300 to take an MEI ride and getting the 5 hours for free.

I never got my MEI when I worked there because the line to get into the Seminole was so long, I never planned to instruct in the multi from day one. I spent nearly 18 months there before leaving and if I had stayed literally another month, I would have been going to multi upgrade. After Sept 11th, lots of people who had the plugs pulled on their sim training with airlines were given their CFI jobs and seniority number back at Riddle and since most, if not all of them were multi upgraded, that put a big wrench in the works (since the rich got richer and single engine pukes continued to wait for their multi upgrade for who knows how much longer).

I wound up splitting 100 hours of multi time with a friend of mine, who was an MEI, and we flew around the southeast during our spare time. Took about 6 months to log 100 hours. Of course, this was before Sept 11th and I pretty much wasted $6,000 on multi time because the Air Force couldn't have cared less about 100 hours of light twin time when I applied.

Alex

Having just finished the multi-upgrade at riddle myself about 2 weeks ago i think i can help. The requirements are simple: 350 hours dual given, 70% pass rate, and an MEI. You need the MEI because the standardization course will not get you the 15 PIC required for an MEI, it will, however, give you the 5 hours PIC required to teach in type. They basically start a class whenever they start needing more multi instructors based on attrition, and select people based on the requirements stated above. Hope this helps -Alex.

Uncle Bose

Thanks...could you indulge me with a few more answers?
What is the average time to upgrade, provided a candidate meets all the requirements? In other words, how long is a newly-minted MEI just sitting on that rating? Also, is there any priority given to those who got their MEI in a Seminole?
Just wondering...I graduated a year ago and moved away, but have been considering moving back to instruct there. One thing I remember from CFI watercooler talk there is how fast multi time builds up once an MEI is upgraded. Is that expected to change with the new sim-heavy 142 program?

Alex

Well most people take a while to upgrade because most of the new hires here are brand new CFI's out of the fast-track program. My case was a little different, I was hired in december and selected for the upgrade a month later. However, I had over 350 hours of dual given from previous work as an instructor at a different school. So if you meet the requirements, and there is a need for multi instructors, then there is almost no wait at all


As far as getting it in a seminole, it definitly helps once you're in the standardization class, but it makes no difference as far as getting selected for it.

It really depends on what type of multi students you get, and whether you're full-time or not. I'm part time right now (graduating in May) so I only get about 3 students overall. The three students I have now are all part 142 instrument students. Most of it is done in the multi, but it's mostly sims, so I won't be getting much flight time out of those students. However, I know of quite a few full-timers that have nothing but multi students, both part 141 and 142, private, instrument and commercial. So as you can imagine, they are building nothing but multi time from now on.