0918,
Been thinking 'bout this one. I am just about convinced this is the best course of action for me. I reckon I should do my Night Qual late November(ish) and then move onto the ME rating. I have a share in an AA5 that I can then build hours in without worrying about night through the Winter as necessary (in theory!). Once the Night and Twin ratings are established I will start the ME IR. However, I have no intention of quiting work yet so I am quite happy to attempt this part-time over several months. Combined with ATPLs and other misc private flights in my AA5 that should build the hours quite nicely. I imagine I may have a couple of months of ATPL study left once the IR is through. Time to get more hours in to ensure that magic 100 PiC and get the CPL out of the way. By the end I should have 230-250+hrs.
The interleaving of training will be much more convienient than waiting until I have met the course CPL requirements before resuming flying training.
If there is a flaw in this plan then I imagine it lies with the part-time IR idea. However, at the moment I have not the knowledge to udnerstand why doing an IR part-time could be a specific problem.
Laters!