Originally Posted by
ale.masetti
From my understanding the route is: PPL > hour building > ATPL theory > CPL > MER > IR > MCC & airline pilot standard > UPTR
That is one of many modular 'routes', and also the most expensive!
The CPL requires 200 hours. The IR does not. Which one are you going to do first?
An MEIR requires 15 hours in an MEP, an SEIR to MEIR upgrade requires 5 (some of which can be SIM) which do you think is cheaper, an SEIR test or 10+ hours multi?
To answer your questions specifically:
I would always advise to get the PPL then forget about flying and concentrate on the ATPL exams. Sure, you could hour build at the same time, but there's really no need. It all comes back very quickly. Obviously there's a lot more to it than that: you don't want to spend the summer studying and leave hour building until the winter - especially in the UK. The bottom line is you don't know exactly how long those exams are going to take, so just get through them.
Hours are hours: it doesn't matter where they're flown or the reg of the aircraft. That being said there's a lot of sense in flying as many hours as possible in the area you intend to take your CPL test. It's not much different to the PPL test, but not getting lost definitely helps the pressure off!
3 months is quite reasonable to get everything done flying-wise. Although the weather plays a huge part. Allow 2-3 months in the summer, longer in the winter.
There are requirements for hour building, all laid down in Part FCL, Cap804 is a good reference too. The big one is 100 hours PIC and a commercial XC, but it's always a good idea to log as many columns as you can because you never know what you'll need to show in the future. One day you'll need 100 hours of Night for an ATPL. What if your first job is Day only? It happens. You can log Total, PIC, night, cross country and Instrument all at the same time. Don't waste your hour building just chasing the PIC.