Best Place To Add on MEI

RM1546

RM1546

Well-Known Member
I want to add on Multi-Engine Instructor. I'm looking for a good place to do it (price, time, examiner, etc.). Location is not an issue (non-rev benefits). I see the banner on this site for ATP $2,495 and I took my commercial multi checkride in a Seminole years ago so it's a possibility. Any help or suggestions is appreciated. Thanks!
 
I highly recommend ATP Addison and DPE Norm Seward. I did my ATP MEL there some time ago and found the instructors to be highly professional with lots of time in the airplane and a very thorough understanding of their local flying area. Addison is a great location with short taxi times and close proximity to lots of good restaurants and activities. If you decide to go there I'm certain you'll have a great experience. Please feel free to PM me if you've got any questions about my experiences there.
 
I am doing my MEI at the ATP in Phoenix next week and also doing some training on the side with a DP out there too. I will let you know what I thought about the experience when I get done.
 
Thanks for the info! Let me know how ATP in Phoenix is. I have also heard good things about the Addison location as well. Traverse City, MI would be awesome too. The colors in the lake are awesome.
 
Just finished the mei program with atp-ads and quite literally took my checkride with Norm yesterday. I highly recommend it! The group there is very professional, and i felt very well prepared for the ride. PM me if you have any questions...
 
TheBritishBaron said:
Just finished the mei program with atp-ads and quite literally took my checkride with Norm yesterday. I highly recommend it! The group there is very professional, and i felt very well prepared for the ride. PM me if you have any questions...
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Very cool.

kfischer11 - please do post your experience (or PM me with it).
 
In Phoenix I did a combination for my MEI, I started in a duchess, which is what I did my multi rating in (that way I now have 5 PIC in that). I did 4 hours in a duchess with a DP out there building some time. PM if you have questions about him. He is easy to work with and a good instructor. ATP I did a 10 hour block with and took my checkride with them. At ATP my instructor was able to answer all my questions and seemed to know his material. I felt very prepared for my checkride that I did at ATP. Also great weather, which is always a plus. I recommend either one, it was a great experience.
 
Of course none of you talking about the cheapest place to do the MEI will ever comment on how little CFIs make.
 
Blackhawk said:
Of course none of you talking about the cheapest place to do the MEI will ever comment on how little CFIs make.
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Also 15 hours PIC and 2 training flights totally makes someone a safe, competent multi-engine instructor.
 
You are currently an instructor and you don't find it best to go to a DPE that you send your students to?
Do you just not have access to a twin there?


-If you are currently instructing
-You currently send students to local DPE.
-Have access to a twin
-Have a buddy instructor
-Have the PIC time
Do one day of training and a check ride in the morning with that DPE. No travel and very little time off from work.
Learning how to instruct in a twin compared to a single is really a joke of a concept.
 
Blackhawk said:
Of course none of you talking about the cheapest place to do the MEI will ever comment on how little CFIs make.
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You're right, I haven't. If I wanted to do something for money I certainly would have chosen a different profession. The guy found a niche market and all power to him for doing so. There are just some facts in life you must accept....you will die, you will pay taxes, and CFI's will never earn what they are worth. :D
 
zaza32 said:
You're right, I haven't. If I wanted to do something for money I certainly would have chosen a different profession. The guy found a niche market and all power to him for doing so. There are just some facts in life you must accept....you will die, you will pay taxes, and CFI's will never earn what they are worth. :D
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I was pretty specific in what I wrote. I never slammed the people offering the training. Competition is good in all facets of aviation. I merely find it to be ironic that one of the common laments on this website is how little pilots make. Heck, there have even been threads about a national CFI union (an idea that I find to be very silly). Yet in the next breath the same people will enquire about the cheapest place for a multi-engine rating.
 
Douglas said:
You are currently an instructor and you don't find it best to go to a DPE that you send your students to?
Do you just not have access to a twin there?


-If you are currently instructing
-You currently send students to local DPE.
-Have access to a twin
-Have a buddy instructor
-Have the PIC time
Do one day of training and a check ride in the morning with that DPE. No travel and very little time off from work.
Learning how to instruct in a twin compared to a single is really a joke of a concept.
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Instruct, maybe. Stay alive, not really. I've known test pilots killed doing Vmc testing. It's a maneuver with a great deal of misunderstanding among ME pilots and one that even with altitude can be unrecoverable.
 
Blackhawk said:
Instruct, maybe. Stay alive, not really. I've known test pilots killed doing Vmc testing. It's a maneuver with a great deal of misunderstanding among ME pilots and one that even with altitude can be unrecoverable.
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I agree completely, the abc123s of teaching is what i am talking about.

Learning to stay alive in twin training is a white knuckle experience, especially in a plane that can't hold altitude with one sim feathered, blue line and circling to land at sea level, full power and gear up.
Things can go really wrong really quickly. After a year of it, I gave up instruction in twins.
Tips and tricks to stay alive is where the real dual received happens with MEI training, IMO.
 
Douglas said:
Learning to stay alive in twin training is a white knuckle experience
Things can go really wrong really quickly.
Tips and tricks to stay alive is where the real dual received happens with MEI training, IMO.
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Absolutely agree with all three of these statements. Hence my earlier comment.
Your Cheapo MEI rating might teach you to pass the checkride, but will they at least introduce you to some of the scary stuff that can go down when teaching? Like the first time you yank an engine at 500' and the student promptly slams full WRONG rudder? Or when a student will try to gear up the airplane? Or cross control stall at 400'? Or flips the mags off on the one good engine during what's supposed to be a simulated engine failure in the pattern? It's a lot of basic situation awareness and staying on top of what the student is doing, stuff similar to what you've already learned in your flight instructing career, but a multi takes things to a whole 'nother level and a quickie MEI course of 2 flights of maneuvers from the right seat is a good way to set yourself up for a nasty surprise somewhere down the line.
 
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