Multi-Engine Time Building
 

If anyone around the NY/Long Island Area is looking to build some quality multi-engine time, please PM me. I have an excellent rate (I'm talking less than $100/person when FINAL costs have been halved) on a quality well maintained light twin.

Halved? How can you cut the costs in half?

He's probably talking about splitting with safety pilot time.

If so, be careful about logging all that...

I think the only way you log it as a "safety pilot" is to do it IFR (foggles) the whole, time, and you don't get to log all of it, you have to subtract 2 tenths for startup/shutdown, and another tenth unless you actually do zero/zero takeoffs, and another tenth for each landing.

But to split the costs, I don't think you can, legally, split the costs even if you have a safety pilot. Because the regs say (not an exact quote) that you have to both be "going that way" anyway, and then you can only split an "equal share" of the "actual expenses".

I don't think the FAA takes too kindly to splitting for training.

I suppose, if you're renting, that one of you could rent and pay one time, and the other would be the safety pilot, and the next time do it the other way around, but if it's not a rental, then you'd have to have insurance on the other pilot.

Yes, the only way to legally log safety pilot is to do it under the hood. There's no real rule for taking tenths off... essentially, if the pilot under the hood logged .5 of simulated instrument, that's how much safety pilot time YOU will log.

I've heard of plenty of guys who split a twin, take a trip, and don't do any hood time. They split the time evenly, each logging half the trip as safety time, and the other half as PIC. More power to them if they can find a way to explain all that safety pilot time in an interview...

Quality of flight time is to be considered as well. I know if I saw a candidate that had a lot of multi safety pilot time I would probably not take too much if any into consideration. A safety pilot essentially does nothing but look for traffic and employers know this. Just my .02 cents...

I personally have seen many people split a twin, fly it VFR with no actual paper history, both log it, then go get jobs at airlines and never ever look back. I never was even faced with this choice but I know a few who are wide body airline pilots 30 years later. It is def against the law, and noone should ever do this, but maybe this is what the OP was getting at.

Splitting the cost of building flight time by utilizing a safety pilot is a commonly accepted method of building experience in many collegiate flight programs/schools, including the one I attended. This practice has also been encouraged by all of the typically conservative designated examiners I have encountered. It is true that some of the total time of the flight must be deducted from the safety pilot's time due to run up, taxiing, landing, etc. Other than that, I believe flying approaches in a somewhat "fast" light twin with a safety pilot is valuable experience for both pilots. When I have acted as the safety pilot, I know that I was very involved in the flight environment (mostly mentally) and that I wasn't just there watching for traffic. Even when I wasn't at the controls I still gained some experience by paying close attention to the progress of each approach as we flew along. I would say that multi engine instructing would be best, but lets face it, that is not for everyone so I don't really see the big deal with splitting 80-100 hours with another pilot. If you really believe that a safety pilot time really is unvaluable, then what about single pilot time when the plane is on autopilot? When the plane is on autopilot you are nothing but a safety pilot "just looking for traffic," not? Flyheavy if you were closer to me I'd be interested, darn!

If either one of the pilots on board has a MEI it would make logging a lot easier.

What if one person is PIC and the other pilot isn't and they take turns doing this? I've heard some people say that if the hobbs meter is running, and they are being charged for it, they're logging it.