I am doing my Multi Comm as the initial commercial, and then I hope to transition to the MEI. I was told that that the X-country flights will be logged as "performing the duties of PIC"

Does "performing the duties of PIC" time count towards the 15 hours of actual PIC time needed as a prerequisite for the MEI?

If not, I wonder if I am better off getting the Multi-pravate first and then multi comm., as this would give me more real PIC time. It can be done in a weekend. I didn't want to waste the money on a PPV mult checkride, but I hate to pass up all of that PIC time since I will need it for MEI.

Thanks

 

Simply put - no, your "performing duties of PIC" time does not count as actual PIC time and cannot go towards your 15 PIC requirement for the MEI. It counts as dual flight time with your instructor. You'll need to be sure to write in the remarks column of your logbook "performing duties of PIC" for that time.

Not real sure if getting your PP AMEL will help you out or not. Once you have a multi-engine rating you can log dual and pic concurrently as you work on your Commercial ticket with your instructor. You'll need 30 hrs of multi-time (20hrs of training + 10hrs solo/duties of PIC) in addition to all the other commercial requirements to meet the experience requirements anyway. It sounds like an ok deal, but like you said though it'll cost you.

 

Yeah, that bird won't fly. PIC is only if you are rated in the aircraft, and you won't be without the checkride. I can appreciate the difficult position you're in, but if you do your MEI as the initial instructor ticket, you may need the 15 hours to be proficient. Not sure what's on the MEI initial, but the add-on is a cakewalk in terms of time. Less than 5 hours if you remember how to fly a multi.

 

there's two ways to the CFI as I see it.
You either do your initial commercial cert. in a single engine, and do the multi as an add-on, then you do your CFII and CFI and take the MEI at a later date cause you're never going to get to work as a MEI in the beginning.

Second option is to do the multi-engine route, gives you more multi-PIC etc. Do your multi-private, then multi-commercial, MEI, single commercial and CFI, CFII.

The single options will give you about 15-20 hours of non-pic multi-time after your multi-commercial add-on. So you would then have to get an additional 15 hours as PIC before getting the MEI checkride.

The multi option will give you about 50-55 multi hours after the multi-commerical, about 30-35 of them PIC. You can then do the MEI in as few flights as you can, and at the end you're not a lot worse of then doing the single.

Myself I'm doing the multi-route now, and I'm in the middle of my MEI

 

The only place I know of where the FAR's allow "performing the duties of PIC" to count for aeronautical experience requirements is for some of the PIC required for an ATP.

 

In response to insurance companies not allowing students to solo some aircraft (i.e. multi's) the FAA does allow you to meet the requirements for PIC or PIC cross country time with an instructor on board in some specific cases. I do not think that that time would be able to be counted towards your MEI but the best way to get a straight answer is to talk to the FSDO in your area.

 

That's correct, it's basically dual in lieu of solo. I wouldn't log that as PIC though.

 

14 CFR 61.129(b)(4) -

10 hours of solo flight time in a multiengine airplane or 10 hours of flight time performing the duties of pilot in command in a multiengine airplane with an authorized instructor (either of which may be credited towards the flight time requirement in paragraph (b)(2) of this section), on the areas of operation listed in §61.127(b)(2) of this part that includes at least—
(i) One cross-country flight of not less than 300 nautical miles total distance with landings at a minimum of three points, one of which is a straight-line distance of at least 250 nautical miles from the original departure point. However, if this requirement is being met in Hawaii, the longest segment need only have a straight-line distance of at least 150 nautical miles; and
(ii) 5 hours in night VFR conditions with 10 takeoffs and 10 landings (with each landing involving a flight with a traffic pattern) at an airport with an operating control tower.


Exactly, the student just needs to make sure that it's logged as dual and in the remarks section make sure to note "performed duties of PIC" so the examiner can differentiate between training flights and "duties of PIC" flights.

 

Where are you doing your multi-commercial? I did my commercial the same way and I had to do a stage check after like 10 hours in the twin to get my complex endorsement. Some of my classmates took their private multi ride then so they could log the rest of the commercial course as multi-pic.

My school did not have any single complex planes for CFI training. Students would do all the commercial maneuvers in the single and jump into the Seminole to demonstrate complex proficiency. If they had the 15 PIC, most would do the MEI in the same checkride because they had to go out and do all the multi-maneuvers anyway to demonstrate proficiency. It just meant they had a longer oral.

 

I would recommend knocking out your Private/Instrument Multi first. Then you can start logging PIC right away.