Commercial Question

E_Dawg

Moderator
OK so in trying to make the most of my $$$ I'm trying to figure out when to start the commercial so I can pretty much take the ride at the magic 250 hrs. Anyone have any idea of about how many hours of training it typically takes? Thanks for any insight.

Oh and my DE for the instrument ride offered to do the Comm as a stage check for the CFI. Do you guys think this is a good idea? Or should I just concentrate on the Comm? Thanks as always.
 
If you are going to do all of your ratings, you could start in the right seat right now. I'd just stay in the left though and just concentrate on one rating at a time.

You can use 50 hours of instruction from a CFII in an FTD and apply that to the 250 needed for the commercial. That is a good way to save money.
 
mavmb1, you beat me to the punch. I was going to mention this "loophole" but wonder about the practicality of it. I have an ATC610 ground trainer that could be used, with a CFII, for 50 of the 250 towards the Commercial under part 61. While these ground trainers were da bomb in 1975, I don't find them useful for more than 10 hours, really. Not to say you could spend another 40 hours practicing holding patterns in the wind, but it's sort of a waste, in my opinion. However, a guy could sure save some money doing it this way. Has anyone used 50 hours of ground trainer time towards the 250 for the Commercial?
 
I don't know how many hours you currently have but I would start training for the commercial at about 230 hours. 20 hours should be more than adequate to learn lazy 8s, chandelles, eights on pylons, etc.... I would learn them in the left seat and make the transition to the right seat as soon as possible.
If you plan it right, you can definately obtain your CFI at 250 hours as well.
Good luck.
 
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