Too many decisions

JulietBravo

On Call, On Demand
So another decision in my life; I have the opportunity of getting a CE-500 type rating from a guy who has his own citation and is a friend of our chief flight instructor. All I would have to do is pay for fuel during the training, then once I get the sic type, I would pay for my own hotel room when I go on trips with him. My dilemma is that I could do that, or I could get my MEI.

1. MEI is valuable and I could probably use it more.

2. Type rating is great, I get jet time right before I graduate, but would a company think of me as more valuable? (I guess it depends if they have that kind of citation)

I just got asked to do it yesterday and I need to let them know tomorrow... help!! :panic:

FYI... I have roughly 500/100 right now.
 
Pay for your hotel room? Run away

Pay for fuel? Laugh while you run away.

Leeme guess.....0 pay?

f that

Seriously though, He is using you for insurance reasons and making it sound like hes doing you a favor. IMO
 
You know how much fuel costs per hour???!???!!! He's more than likely going to "train" you during his trips. Why the hell should you be paying for the fuel?

If you're a corporate pilot, which you would be in this case, you should never pay for your hotel room, unless you will be reimbursed when you submit your expense report to his accounting department. That's a crock of crap for him to ask you to render your services at no charge but not put you up in a hotel for the night. Look at it this way. He's likely spending thousands of dollars to get to his destination, but he can't spend $150/night to put you in a nice hotel. Its (bad word)holes like this that bring the industry down. You don't want to be any part of that.

Tell him that when he's ready to treat and compensate you as a professional that you'll be willing to take his offer.
 
The SIC type rating is largely a paperwork drill. (I got mine by attending Flight Safety's ground & simulator course on the King Air.) FAR 61.55 details the requirements. There's no check ride for it, so you could do it with a local CFI (if you can find one for the Citation). Once your training is done, you submit an 8710 to the FAA and they issue you a new certificate. Simple.

I'm sure folks will weigh in with a "if you're flying you should be getting paid" point of view, and that has merit. Others will give you the "jump on any jet time you can get" rationale, and that also has merit for a low time pilot. The question that only you can answer is, how valuable of an experience do you think this will be for you? If I had someone offer to let me fly his plane to get a rating for the price of gas, I would take it. You can never have too much training, even if the resultant rating has limited utility. If you decide to pay for the training, get the type, then fly with him while footing the bill for your own travel expenses and you find that it's costing more than you can afford, you can always tell him you've had enough fun and you can walk away happy with the experience you gained. You'll be a much better pilot for the experience even if you never touch a Citation again.

If the owner has a single pilot type rating, then he doesn't need you to tag along and is really offering it to you as a favor. If he doesn't have a single pilot type or his insurance requires two pilots, then he is trying to get you to foot part of the bill of him flying his own airplane. You should find out the situation before you make your decision.

I think it comes down to your training budget. Can you afford to invest the time and money into a rating that won't have income potential and then invest further time & money using this rating? Sure, the flight time you get may lead to other opportunities, but you shouldn't let future possibilities guide your decision. If you have the time and money to do this just for the fun of it, then go for it! If your budget is limited, then regret the offer or negotiate for pay.
 
SIC time and SIC types are worthless, IMO. SIC time is nothing more than total time in the eyes of insurers so that means future corporate jobs won't care too much for it. The Seminole PIC time you will build as an MEI is more valuable. The guy owns a $1,000,000 jet and is paying roughly $1,200 an hour to operate it. There is no reason he could not afford hotel rooms for you on the road or afford to pay you $300 per day. To put it simply, only an idiot would go for this deal.

Alex.
 
Well I think I've been battered enough in the past half hour to know what to do. The big part of my head was telling me to go for it mainly because, ya... its jet time! I could probably afford it if I wanted to, but I just wanted to find out on here if it would be worth it. Few answers:

He already flies it single pilot.

He's offering it to a few CFI's at our school.

He's a CFI and would sign us off.

He's treating it as an "opportunity" for us so that's why we pay for fuel(only during training), and then hotel after that.

I just wanted to know if it would be worth it from people out in the real world and I see that it probably wouldn't be at this point in time.
 
JB,

The guy is a crook. This is not a legitimate opportunity whatsoever. Under part 91 the SIC time isn't valid since the aircraft if type certificated for single pilot ops. It'd be a different story, logging time wise, if it was 121, 135, or 91 section K.

Run like hell. This is nothing more that a wolf in sheep's clothing.
 
No one is here to batter you, only to help guide you. If you want to do it, then go do it. But in my opinion 30 hours in the right seat of a single pilot airplane (which means you really cannot even lot it as SIC time, only dual time) is not worth the $4,000 it would cost you. The company I fly for is about to buy a jet (we currently fly a turboprop) and I bring people like you every chance I get. They get a hotel room and all expenses paid for.

Alex.
 
I would definitely go for the MEI. I agree with what the others above have said about the jet "opportunity." That being said, you mentioned you had 500/100 flight time wise which is pretty good at your stage. In my experience the first 100 hours of ME time was the hardest to get. Once you get your MEI you'll be surprised at the ME opportunities that come your way if you look for them. Potential employers will give you a lot more credit for the extra couple hundred hours of time in your logbook as an MEI than they would give to some sketchy dual received time in a Citation. Remember that flight time in your logbook is all fair game in an interview. I would be willing to bet you will be a lot more comfortable fielding questions about being an MEI than you would be about Citation systems questions. Just food for thought.
 
Careful guys. . .the insight and opinions you provide might discourage someone from making a decision in their life, rather than being informative.

Just a fair warning.
 
Careful guys. . .the insight and opinions you provide might discourage someone from making a decision in their life, rather than being informative.

Just a fair warning.

:D You fear mongering, misinformation spreading, snuffer of dreams person. How do you sleep at night?










:sarcasm: :hiya:
 
I got a citation type rating right after I finished my instructor ratings. I used my GI Bill and it was good training, but a type rating is worthless unless you have a good amount of total time. I had a few opportunities to fly along not getting paid, but it just wasn't worth it. Until you have around 1500TT having the CE-500 rating won't help you with much of anything. Get the MEI
 
JulietBravo -

Just in case you needed another few people to help sway your decision (if there is still a decision left at this point) I say to tell the Citation place you're not interested in that deal.

It is not standard to pay for your own hotel on the road nor should it ever be and it will never be as long as people do not accept it.
 
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