BT wrote:
If you can rent a Twin without the Instrument rating. Then work on your
commercial written and maneuvers in a Piper Arrow or similar aircraft, at
the same time intersperse some Twin Training.

Take the Commercial SEL check ride one month, and the Commercial MEL within
a few days.
Without an Instrument Rating, your Commercial credentials will be limited.


Nobody was interested in renting a twin at all in my area, so I put the multi
rating on the back burner until I had a need. I'd gotten my private,
instrument, and then commercial license and just started building hours by hook
or by crook. I eventually was in the right place at the right time and talked
my way into single engine part 135. I started doing single pilot charters for
them and saw the handwriting on the wall.... it was time to see about a multi
rating (my company used a C-402B for multi charter; a Cherokee Six or C-210 for
single engine charter).

I went down to Atlanta to one of the flight schools that advertised at the time
in Trade-A-Plane. I'm too lazy to go downstairs and see how many hours it took
but it wasn't all that much (maybe 6 or so). We did most of the training in a
multi sim, then went for a couple of flights in a Seminole. After that it was
just a check ride with a designated examiner who was on staff at the flight
school.

I continued doing my single engine charter for the company until one day I was
scheduled to fly as copilot on a C-402 trip and the pilot didn't show up (went
on a bender instead). Didn't call, nothing. Just didn't show up... but I did.
I ended up flying the folks in a Cherokee Six. The following week, I got
checked out as PIC in the C-402. Nice airplane. I enjoyed flying it a lot.

The point of all this is that getting a multi rating as the first add-on to a
private license is probably going to be a waste of time and money. You'll get
infinitely more utility out of an instrument rating. Then when things fall into
place, you can always add the multi rating later. It just isn't that big a
deal.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com