I think that
Evo is about right.
Pre JAR it used to be much easier to do the basic PPL on a MEP. About the only peolpe I knew who did, were those who already owned a MEP (or their faimily did).
Under JAR, does anyone know at what stage a student, learning on a MEP, would be allowed to go solo? Or would all his "solo" have to be done with a MEP rated instructor in the RHS, as a safety pilot?
I trained the conventional route - SEP - IMC - Night - MEP. From what I recall, I did not go "solo" on a MEP, until I had got my MEP rating back from the CAA.
Where is BEagle or Irv, when we need them?
Further thoughts - what about insurance?
Most of the schools that let MEPs out on self-fly hire, require something like a minimum of 100 to 200 hrs total, & 10 to 20 hrs MEP. The more powerful the MEP, then the higher these figures. I do not think that a student, with not even a SEP PPL, would be insured to fly solo on a MEP. So would he have to pay for the M/E instructor to sit in the RHS, until he had clocked up the whole 70 hours?
A quick shuffle of the beads on the abacus, & I reckon that an MEP, followed by the extra bit to get the SEP class rating added, would cost more than TWICE as, much as SEP followed by MEP.