US F1 Visa, school restrictions post-CPL?

[Krautwald]

I am sure it has been asked before, but I could not find a short and precise answer so please forgive. I will try to keep it simple.

- I have read that a person who has been in US flight training for PPL on a M1 visa are less likely to get an F1 for CPL/ATPL training later. True/false/why?

- If holding a F1, is it required to do all training and job experience at the F1 approved school, or would it be legal to do for example: just the CPL and CFI at the F1 school, then start working as FI in another school and doing IR, CFII or whatever at that school, or even a third one? Or in other words, will you be considered a commercial pilot on job experience as soon as you hold the CPL, or will you be considered a student all the way and be restricted to the F1 approved school that you started out with, for any course that you ever attend, also after you technically have become a commercial pilot?

Reason for asking the latter is that my girlfriend has family in the US that I could stay with, relieving me of a big portion of living expenses. But the flightschool near their town is not F1 approved. So basically my question is, would I be allowed to fastlane through to CPL at an F1 school and then try my luck at the other flightschool, either as CFI or just as a regular student?

Totally different question last: all other qualifications alike, will languages help land a hour building job in touring/sightseeing flights in a US tourist area? I speak Dutch and French, English and a little Spanish and German.

Thanks!

[Hitbacker]

Hi, I had to turn in a different route (modular without instructing stateside) but my research with other posts, legal texts and direct contact with the few F1-schools on a field trip up and down the Florida coasts revealed the following:

You can do the PPL on an M1 which will lengthen your OPT by very few weeks if you subsequently apply for an F1 visa, however: I am not sure it is worth the hassle of a double application process, even it is with the same schoo; and especially in your situation (i.e. with your plan). You can change to a different school for OPT once you have acquired your CPL/CFI, which not all schools will tell you; but other than your residential savings I am not sure that's necessarily the greatest idea; PTS may be all the same all over FAA country, but there will be some bureaucracy involved with a certain waiting period (I was told several weeks, usually), you won't know the local air work area, controllers, satellite airfields, examiners etc. Plus, if you are a good, reliable teacher who cares about his students, there probably will be more apt, more focused students at the school you graduate yourself at.

I intended to go stateside (Ari Ben, that is, with PEA a close second - the others were either not to my liking or financially off the chart) with plenty of glider experience since their syllabus is a mix of 141 and 61, so you might with good preparation on ground school and glider flying save both time and hours in order to get to instruction quite quickly, since those hours are apparently (last checked: Dec 2010) not seen as PPL/ power experience by the visa authorities. However, according to the FAR (and their back-then chief CFI) you can use up to 130 - 150 of them (the last being in theory, the first being more realistic since you still need to get the minimum in PPL, IR and ME training in) it is legal and legitimate.

Not sure how many local instructors stay these days with the 1500 hr threshold, but back then consensus amongst schools and students was that the motivated, foreign, "caring about their students" instructors who were open minded were pretty active in getting hours, which had been one of my biggest concerns along with a transfer request that you mentioned in your post.

Good luck! I am not sure you shall save that much on housing if you find less flight students who are passionate about aviation and booking 2 - 3 lessons a day outside of F1 schools.... just my 2 cents :-)

[Hitbacker]

I didn't quote you so I wrote from memory, now reread your post:

Pretty positively you couldn't separate the IR from the rest of the F1-training: The syllabus has to sort of "expectedly" last 9 months (Ari Ben fastest foreigner was I believe about 3,5 months, I did 0 - 250 hrs CPL ME/ IR in two stages in 5,5 months, but 9 months seem a realistic average at 141 academies with full ground school), plus you need the TSA clearance for the first rating (PPL in your case), ME and IR. So - I'd be surprised if the State Department fancied you applying for a 9 month training with subsequent OPT and confirmed that OPT even though you only did 10 hrs of instrument training.

You can assemble quite a list of legalese on this issue but you put yourself at the mercy of a bureaucrat who can even make an arbitrary decision on this field, based on the intent to twist some rules that generally say "show us you have 55 k $ plus living expenses, undergo 9 months of professional training and then we may allow you to work a bit in that field, for 12 months, like we would allow a foreing medicine student or attorney to assist on surgeries or intern at a law firm", not to have added competition on their quite mediocre labour market.

As for the lingual skills, there are some schools that cater specifically to foreign PPL tourists - but if those skills are that helpful those schools might even sponsor you. But would you rather teach men in their midlife crisis in the pattern or do some instrument or ME training to some fellow hopefuls? I suppose the latter will help your resume more. Again, just my 2 pence, but putting the cash aside, choosing one school carefully and sticking with them with the intent of reaching 1500 hrs after 18 months sounds like a less troublesome proposition.

[zondaracer]

just the CPL and CFI at the F1 school, then start working as FI in another school and doing IR

FAR 61.183 says you need an instrument rating before you can get a CFI certificate so you may have to figure that in as well at your F1 school.

[MartinCh]

FAR 61.183 says you need an instrument rating before you can get a CFI certificate so you may have to figure that in as well at your F1 school
True. That's one of the reasons I rushed my IR(A) even when I'm not done with IR(H) yet. Not applicable to heli CFI, plenty CFIs without IR in the rotary part of aviation.

The IR for fixed wing CFI makes sense, since even CPL holders in part 91 flying etc can't fly far without IR.