instrument passed, now comm 61 or 141/

deek

New Member
I have 120TT in all part 61 up till now and looking to start my commercial, my school can do either part 61 or 141. From what I can gather you have to pay for a 141 ground school (few hundred) and pay for stage checks and still do 120 hours in the program and 55 hours of instructor time (giving me a total of 240TT). Or I can go part 61 and study on my own and have less instruction hours and end at 250TT. Now that is 10 hour difference so say $900 (90 an hour for a 152 wet here, but when you add in the cost of ground school, and more hours of dual instruction, I'm guessing that $900 would end up even. or part 61 would be cheaper.

Any advise would be great!
 
I'd say to do the commercial 61; I did my instrument under 141 and it took an insane amount of time. My flight school had only one stage check pilot, and between his schedule and the weather, getting the stage checks in was a frustrating experience. Had I sucked it up and done the extra hours for part 61, itI probably would have taken 3-4 months less time. YMMV, but I would say that at a small flight school part 61 is the way to go.
 
Go pt 61-you can go out get a TW endorsement, get some acro training, fly your cross countries, have FUN flying for awhile, and then spend maybe 10-15hrs on the complex airplane and polishing comm. maneuvers so you're ready for the checkride at around 250.
If you're looking to get paid to fly, you need the hours anyway, so you might as well give yourself something to talk about in your upcoming interviews and do something a bit different.
 
I did part 141 for my private hated it because it was no fun. Did all my other training part 61. Taught at a part 141 school hated it because boss wanted to know why I wasn't flying on Saturdays and asked why my students aren't passing their stage checks. I've noticed that with part 141 stage checks take forever especially if you have one examiner trying to take 60 students up. So depending on how big your flight school is. I would do it part 61.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I didn't even think about the time to get the stage checks. My school is big on students from india so I'm sure they are constantly getting stage checks making it harder for me to get any in, especially since I work 9-5 and would only be flexible on the weekends for time.
 
Part 61 for sure. Make flying like a job for you. I had 140 hours after I finished instrument. I needed 110 to get to 250. I tried to fly every day for 3-4 hours. If you do this your commercial certificate will come very quickly. The last 15 hours I flew in the complex with an instructor.
 
deek,

if you dont mind me askin', what have you spent so far on your training? what do you think your total spent on getting your commercial would be?

i too am planning on doing all my ratings at my local fbo (part 61) where i just finished my private. i want to start my instrument next but would really like to have all the $$ up front and be able to dive in full time. i'll finish my B.S. degree in dec. and plan on taking out a loan to pound through the ratings and the hours. im just trying to figure out a general figure of what i can expect to spend.

thanks
 
I'm paying about $32k for Instrument through MEI (including 115 hours Multi), including 4 months of free housing at the airport, all checkrides, unlimited groundschool, free pick-up & drop off at KMCI, all books, maps, etc, and I can choose when and where I want to fly (have 80 hours night so far). Got 9 hours actual IMC during my Instrument training. With the instructors living in the same house at the airport its aviation 24/7 here. :)
 
dwe, are you at prarie air service? there the only people in KS i know that will let you fly around for that cheap. if that is where you are training, what do you think. i heard herb has been pretty booked up. hows the living situation? would you recomend? thanks
 
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