PA-34 Mentor Pilots Florida and Texas

I believe the way this is logged is that one student has to be under the hood, the other is a required safety pilot, and your giving instruction from the back seat. But im not sure sounds kinda shady to me.
 
I believe the way this is logged is that one student has to be under the hood, the other is a required safety pilot, and your giving instruction from the back seat. But im not sure sounds kinda shady to me.

When I took My CFI checkride with the local FSDO, one of the questions she asked me was how can you have three pilots in a four place airplane and all three of them logging flight time. At first I thought it might be some sort of a ATP trick question but later she explained that you have one student flying simulated instrument, one logging safety pilot and the instructor giving dual from the back seat. Not to mention that she had done this for some time at a very well know University which I'm not gong to name.
 
When I took My CFI checkride with the local FSDO, one of the questions she asked me was how can you have three pilots in a four place airplane and all three of them logging flight time. At first I thought it might be some sort of a ATP trick question but later she explained that you have one student flying simulated instrument, one logging safety pilot and the instructor giving dual from the back seat. Not to mention that she had done this for some time at a very well know University which I'm not gong to name.
What if you had 2 instructors in the back, one giving instruction to "under hood man" and one giving instruction to "Safety pilot person"? You could have FOUR people all getting flight time out of this!

hmm...

BUSINESS IDEA!!!!

-mini
 
When I took My CFI checkride with the local FSDO, one of the questions she asked me was how can you have three pilots in a four place airplane and all three of them logging flight time. At first I thought it might be some sort of a ATP trick question but later she explained that you have one student flying simulated instrument, one logging safety pilot and the instructor giving dual from the back seat. Not to mention that she had done this for some time at a very well know University which I'm not gong to name.

Ask a question of 3 FSDO inspectors, you'll get 5 answers. I guaran-damn-tee you I could go to the Ft Worth FSDO and get an interpretation that counters her interpretation. Then I could go to another FSDO and get one that supports it. So on and so on. If it's not inherently dangerous or illegal, the FSDO will likely not do anything to stop it. From what I've heard/read, this doesn't sound dangerous, and it's only borderline illegal (depending on who you're talking to). Unethical? IMO, yes. But the FAA doesn't police ethics.
 
What if you had 2 instructors in the back, one giving instruction to "under hood man" and one giving instruction to "Safety pilot person"? You could have FOUR people all getting flight time out of this!

hmm...

BUSINESS IDEA!!!!

-mini

You forgot about the Chief Flight Instructor giving ground instruction to the the instructors in the plane over the radio.
 
Ask a question of 3 FSDO inspectors, you'll get 5 answers. I guaran-damn-tee you I could go to the Ft Worth FSDO and get an interpretation that counters her interpretation. Then I could go to another FSDO and get one that supports it. So on and so on. If it's not inherently dangerous or illegal, the FSDO will likely not do anything to stop it. From what I've heard/read, this doesn't sound dangerous, and it's only borderline illegal (depending on who you're talking to). Unethical? IMO, yes. But the FAA doesn't police ethics.

Agreed, at the time I'd never even took an idea like this into consideration, and I don't think I would be comfortable doing something of this nature unless I was very comfortable in my students ability's. But I couldn't find anything stating that you can't give dual from the back seat with a student who is certified in the same category and class of aircraft you're flying.
 
Several post here keep saying "students", keep in mind this company is not advertising to "student pilot" they are marketing to ME Rated Pilots! I'm guessing The "mentor" is there only to make the insurance requirements legal. I'm sure two guys with 15 hours each of multi don't meet the insurance requirements.
 
I'd still like to know how it bumps the border. AFAIK, 61.51 doesn't prohibit this at all.

-mini

By that line of thinking, it wouldn't prohibit me from logging time sitting in the back seat of a Seneca while someone else flew it with their wife/boyfriend/life partner/homeless guy off the street up front with them as long as I leaned forward once or twice and said "Watch your heading." How would you log it? Flight time? PIC instructor time? If you can't reach the controls, I'd argue that flight time is questionable. PIC instructor time would look a little weird if there's no flight time involved.

Like I said, it's borderline because a case can be made either way and FSDO inspectors will contradict each other. If it was clear one way or the other, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.
 
I've been ramp checked twice here and I've been here since 2007. The first time the lady was very nice and friendly and said "well my partner is on the other side of the field and I'm checking planes on this side and well I'm new to this ummmm.... okay I know I have to check your Airworthniness, okay thats good Registration... thats good what else now?" I helped her out showed her all the documents was honest we joked a little bit and she was on her merry way with a smile... I don't know if she was testing me if I would be truthful or not...

Second time about a year later a different lady came up to ramp check and knew what to ask for. She was also very nice and straight forward about everything. The she said she wanted to quiz me about procedures and I said sure, so she asked me if I knew the procedures for flying to the Bahamas so I explained the process of filling a flight plan DVFR or IFR if crossing the ADIZ and making a seperate call to customs and you have to be within the ETA plus hour? (I forgot its been awhile...somebody help me out :D). Anyways she goes oh no just but ADCUS In your flight plan and I said well you have to call the seperate, she got very stern and said "oh no thats not required just put ADCUS and your good!"
 
Since I have been unemployed for 5 months, I thought I would give them a call and at least see what they were offering...heres the meat and potatoes.

You can give them a call and you will be called back by another gentleman. He will tell you he doesn't hire anyone that doesn't spend money with him. He will give you some numbers and try and sell you $20,000 of seneca time. He won't listen to you and really not interested in hiring anyone, just trying to sell training.

Don't bother sending them a resume, unless you want to buy the time.
 
I was a little pissed. I introduced myself, gave him my background, pretty much told him I had been out of a job for 5 months and broke and then tries to sell me $20k of flight time.
 
Someone should call/email him and let him know that his Tab Express-like business model has been exposed throughout industry forums...and that he should legit up.
 
Yeah this is pretty bad I don't know if I should be happy that exposed a fraud or apologetic because of the waste in bandwidth!
 
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