Stickmone,

Congratulations on your hard earned new rating. What are the plane
rental and CFII rates in your area? Assuming you spent about $1K for
training materials, it appeared that your FBO charged you over $200/hr.

Of the 50 or so hours for my rating, over 30 hrs were spent in our
own plane with my husband/training partner as safety pilot. We took an
accelerated IFR course with Bill Zaleski in Schenectady, NY last May.
He charged $400/day and trained us anywhere from 8 to 10 hrs a day (as
long as we could last!). The total training cost for the two of us was
$2800. The operating cost of our Cardinal is about $50/hr. We
probably spent about $500 on training materials: a dozen or so IFR
training books most bought used for $10 or so, the Elite flight
simulator program (the most valuable tool), Clearance on Request etc.
The total cost for my instrument rating is under $4000 which is way
less than my PP ticket.

I'd highly recommend you finding another instrument rated pilot on
the field and trying to fly with each other as safety pilot. You learn
a lot while observing the other person flying and it will certainly cut
down the cost. If you have not already done so, a good simulator like
the Elite is also a cheap way to help with maintaining
procedures/scanning skills and preparing for actual flights.

Enjoy your new ratings. We have had a great time with our tickets
obtaining last Memorial weekend with 2 long cross-country trips
covering over 5000nm total. We will be taking another one next week
bringing our plane from NY to Mena, Arkansas for a paint job. I could
hardly wait to be in and out of the clouds again.

Hai Longworth