Am I ready for twin IFR?

[training wheels]

Hi there,

Just wanted to seek some advice. I have about 250 hours with night VFR rating. I'm wanting to do a multi engine IFR rating in the near future and have been practicing on flights sims at home (FS 2002) for the last 6 months. Progress on this has been good (using the Baron BE58) .... I can fly an ILS and stay within the tolerances right down to the minima (and beyond) with 25 kts cross wind and in asymmteric flight (randon engine failure set on each approach). Now, would I be safe in assuming that I am ready to start the real thing? Is FS2002 a realistic simulation of the real thing?

Also .. if anyone in Oz can tell me what the minima is for Melbourne runway 16 ILS, I'd really apprecaite it. (I'm assuming it's about 600 ft amsl? .. I know .. I should subscribe to Jeppesens, but I'm holding that off until I start the real thing.)

Cheers,

[surly b]

My Jepps say 640'.

You should be fine to start twin training whenever you like. I used to teach singaporeans to fly Barons with a lot less than 250 hours and they were quite able to hack the pace (generally).

FS is a good way to work up scan rate and general IF. It doesn't prepare you for the amount of physical effort that also goes into keeping a light twin the right way up following an engine failure.

Make sure you have the finances to see it through (and some left over to stay current), pick the right school/instructor and enjoy!