Good evening,

I have just completed my Commercial written and am preparing for the oral and practical portions of the testing.

My question(s) is this, which is better with respect to the industry and being more marketable or hired as a low time pilot, to acquire my Commercial Multi-Engine, or my CFI? Either way, I will have limited funds to finish my Single-Engine Commercial and either the Multi, or my CFI.

Thank you in advanced for your ideas.

If you have contacts, or a job lined up, the Multi is probably going to give you an immediate boost. But those jobs can be hard to find or you may not qualify for them yet. If you get your CFI, you can get a job almost anywhere as an instructor. It may not be great, but it could certainly be a step up from life right now and can help build those contacts, especially if you're good at it.

The vast majority of turbine jobs are multi-engine, so the ME would be required for a low-timer interested in corporate or airline jobs.

However...there have been large cuts in regional airline flying in the last couple of months, and two airline bankruptcies in the last several days due to high oil prices and the slowing economy.

Low timers (less than 1500-2000 hours) will not be getting hired at airlines for long, almost all majors and most regionals have stopped hiring within the last two weeks. Even if you do get on, you will be one of the last hired and will either be stuck at the bottom for a very long time, or furloughed.

In your case I'd say get the CFI so you can get a job now and make some money. Then get the ME as soon as possible, so you can build ME time whenever you get the opportunity. When hiring slows, you will need 300-500 hours ME time to get a regional job. CFI jobs are more stable than regional jobs...9/11 didn't affect me much as a CFI. Find a good CFI gig, make some friends, and have some fun for a few years.

well....you NEED your comm-multi ticket as a minimum requirement, you can't do anything with out it and your worthless to the airlines if you dont have it.

...as to getting your CFI, its up to you, people here will tell you you should get one but i dont have mine and i build my time doing aerial photography and fire patrol and ferry flights, which i think is much better experience, (though people will disagree), gl with whatever you choose

if your short on money ... go to your FBO and ask them if you can work out a deal ... they might lower your traning cost if you make a deal to CFI for them for a certain amount of time .. I know people who have done that and then usually when your a CFI at a school they let you rent the planes for a lot less ... so you could get your multi add on

just a thought.

get a CFI gig, save or borrow 6 grand, and do the multi/MEI thing in one false swoop. Listen to these guys, a multi with 20 hours and no cfi can and a lot of the times means you go back to what you're doing now. My gosh is there a flight school not hiring CFI's? If I had to, I'd borrow the 6 grand and it will pay its self back and then some as opposed to building time until you can get a job. "When hiring slows, you will need 300-500 hours ME time to get a regional job" If you cant afford a cfi and ME, how are you going to build 300 ME hours? Instructing of course.

Thank you everyone for your advice. It seems the route to take is the CFI path. It probably would be the route to make me a better all round pilot as well, and I truly don't think I would have an issue with instructing for a while. As I said, it seemed as if most pilots I have been speaking with have found the airlines in need of pilots and have been on a hiring spree with minimal hour requirements. Those conversations stemmed my question as to which route would be best to take.

Again, thank you and if you have any other advice and/or experiences that you went through that you feel might help please let me know.

Thank you.