Hey Mcbeal,

You probably would be better posting this question in another thread, but I will give you my opinion since no one has responded to you yet.

First, the industry sucks as in there are very few jobs and an insecure future at most if not all of the Legacy carriers. Being a military pilot, your husband should first try for the Majors (the ones that are hiring like SWA, AirTran, CAL, Frontier), and only give the regionals a shot if he doesn't have any luck with the hiring majors.

Second, I would advise him to find a Guard or Reserve slot for something to fall back on if or when his job at an airline takes a big crap.

Take it for what its worth and good luck to you both, you will probably need it.

$65,500 was the CAPT program when I signed up. Then you add living expenses (rent, food, utilities, etc.) for the duration of the program. It wasn't cheap. Oh, and the program was sold to me at 10-12 months, which I budgeted for. What I didn't budget for was the additional 5 months of delays which caused rent to be more expensive because I couldn't commit to a lease, so I had to take a second loan out to cover living expenses for the months that I didn't account for. If I knew it was going to be more than 12 months, I would have never have done it because it would have been beyond my means.

Yes I know about them, in fact I know about the three companies listed as I have known pilots that flew for those companies and are either still there (by choice) or left for a better job with a regional or corporate. The pay isn't great (I think CASW paid around $1500/month, Ram Air pays around the same, Airnet pays a little bit more and is a more professional company).

Not to be a prick, but when I had 1000 TT I had a game plan all laid out. You really should start hitting up www.raa.org and looking at the list of employers on there, have the 135 PIC minimums memorized (135.243(c) I believe), etc. etc. You have 1000 TT and are almost to the point of being gainfully employed at a "real" flying job. Get your head outta your butt :).

Why would you even be considering anything else but freight right now to build multi time? Why is it so unappealling to you? You do it for 6-12 months and you can stay or move on (to wherever, corporate, regional, frac), and have a bunch more options than a CFI with practically zero multi will. Too much dual given will hurt you - trust me I know! And why someone would buy their multi time is beyond me...

Another question. So say I have my pilot license with 60 hours TT. How many more hours would it take to get CFI and an ME rating?

Edit: if there is any website that goes through all this and I could be directed to it that would be great thanks.

You will need all of these ratings, usually in this order. I'll describe the basic total time requirements, but there are many detailed flight time requirements which you will cover during training.

Instrument Rating: 40 hours instrument training, plus you will need a total of 50 hours x-country time, some of which will be part of the instrument training, the rest can be on your own.

Commercial (single engine): 250 hours total time, which includes your previous time.

Multi-Engine add-on: No minimum requirement, but usually 10-15 hours in a twin is needed.

CFI: No mins, but usually 10 hours or so. You have to fly/teach from the right seat, so you can make this easier by doing your commercial in the right seat so you get really comfortable over there.

CFII: No mins, probably about 10 hours, plus some sim time helps.

MEI: No mins, but about 10 hours in the twin (right seat) is normal.

Note: These are part 61 requirements; if you participate in a part 141 program, you can usually get some of these ratings with lower time (but it often costs more...if you're spending money, you may as well get as much time in your logbook as possible).

So if you have 60 hrs for private pilot license and need 190 more for commercial rating, how the hell do you gain those hours? Pay for instruction? rent a plane? Get a local job or something?

Yep!!! Scratch around any way you can. This is not an easy biz to get started in AT ALL!!!!! For years to come, you will feel like you will never get enough time.
Although there are some exceptions, the masses pay big money at the big schools and graduate with the total time required to give flight instruction or scenic airplane rides. NOT BE A 135 PIC!!!

The times that rickair mentioned are the legal minimums. However, as the saying goes, your milage may vary. I know that it is certainly possible to finish at the minimums, but I dont know very many pilots that have. There are many potential issues that can serve to increase your training time. The weather might be bad, or the plane might be down for some sort of maintenance or inspection. You might not be able to get your schedule to match your CFI's. Or you might not be able to get the plane's schedule to match. None of these things are "show stoppers" by themselves, but they can certainly add time to your schedule. You can build time by letting it be known that you are always available to share a plane or to act as a safety pilot for some practice instrument approaches. You'll meet lots of other pilots that way. I did it and got to know the person who eventually became my MEI. When he had just finished the rating, we worked out an agreement for my multi-commercial. Plus, as you meet people, you'll build up your all important network of contacts. :)

The required training for the instrument rating, plus some required flight evolutions to qualify for the commercial should get you somewhere around 140-160 roughly...the rest can be solo x-country or local practice area flights. I would recomend that EVERY solo practice-area flight also be a x-country flight...just zip out to the nearest patch outside 50NM, do a stop-and-go, and then go practice your manuevers. This allows the ENTIRE flight to count as x-country, which is helpful for insurance, part 135, and your ATP certificate down the road.

So ok, If I did one lesson per week approx. How long would it take to get private license? From there, how long til I could get certified as an instructor?