SE or ME hours?

[Capt BK]

Ok so i've got my little blue book and, as with everyone else jobs are pretty much none existant for someone with a little over 200hrs, nothing new here.

The question is, as I continue private flying should I be thinking of SE or ME flying? I can hire a Warrior for £90 or a Seneca II for £250ish. Obviously the ME would look better but my TT could be twice as high in a years time if I stick to SE.

I suspect that the answer is a mix of both but wondered what other people thought. I have recently talked to a parachute club that told me their insurance requirement is 350hrs, should I look to get to this kind of level quickly in the hope of free flying?

CBK

[kilobravo]

Hi Capt BK

Would you look at getting your ME and then just keeping current on type but keep building your hours on SE to keep cost down?
Also have you got your IR? You could try combining your ME rating with your IR. Since you can do 40hrs in the SIM out of your total 50-55hrs then that leaves you with 15hrs flying in the twin. That was going to be my approach for next years batch of training after ATPL's and CPL. However it turns out my school do the last few hours of CPL in a Duchess because it is the only complex aircraft they've got, but they may have a SE complex by the time I do my CPL, so we'll see. Anyway, these are only suggestions and I am sure someone with more experience will confirm or give better advice. Would be good for me to know if there is a better approach, but thought that building hours in a twin was a very expensive way to go about it.

Cheers

KB

[Megaton]

If you're thinking about paying for 150 hrs at, say, £100 per hr to get some free flying it will cost you a shed load of money. You would be much better off getting an FI(R) and hr building that way. It will also improve your flying, airmanship and captaincy skills.

Have you got cash to burn? If not, then paying for hr building is probably not going to work. Airlines will still see you as a low-hour prospect whether you have 200 hrs or 300 hrs.

[traumahawk71]

I agree with the above suggestion it will be pretty expensive to build those hours and lets be honest 350 hours is not much better than 250.

I went the instructor rating way and have built up over 800 hours in a year. The bonus is that you get paid I was getting £15 and hour for that. If you work out the Maths you'll see its well worth the initial investment.

As for SE or ME I would definitely try to get as much ME as possible. If you are dead set on paying to build those hours may i suggest you look at going out to fly ME in the US. The costs are much cheaper and if you book a block of flying hours you'll get some good deals.
A recent advert was looking for 1st officer to fly a Lear Jet and one of their requirements was for 200 hours ME.
Good luck. :cool:

[Capt BK]

Thanks for the replies, I think I knew deep down what I needed to do but it's nice when people back up your suspicions.

Got myself booked on a FIC today starting Monday so fingers crossed i'll be instructing in the new year. Unfortunately it will use up all my money so i'll have to lay off the ME for a bit but hopefully i'll be able to save a bit to keep in practice.

Thanks

CBK