Earned my multi commercial!

[Seth]

After the Oshkosh prop incident (still need to do the full write up) and then son’s medical issues, I didn’t have the chance to jump on and give a PIREP:

I flew down to Elon Aviation at KBUY in North Carolina with a fellow Mooney owner in his 231. We both had commercial ratings so we took their weekend accelerated Commercial Multi Engine add on course.

We arrived Saturday morning flew backseat during the others training flights (really helped), and both took our check rides on Monday.

We flew a sweet running BE-55 Baron.  I was REALLY impressed by the Baron.  Really impressed.  If my requirements for our next plane did not include pressurization, I’d highly consider a Baron.  And I know there’s a P-Baron but I’d likely go Aerostar or Cheynne II vs P-Baron.

I highly suggest and recommend Elon Aviation at BUY.  GREAT experience at a lower than estimated price.

-Seth

 

 

Edited August 27, 2019 by Seth

[Seth]

[toto]

59 minutes ago, Seth said:

GREAT experience at a lower than estimated price.

Out of curiosity, do they do a flat-rate CMEL, or pay by the hour?

[Seth]

4 minutes ago, toto said:

Out of curiosity, do they do a flat-rate CMEL, or pay by the hour?

It's not a flat rate but it's estimated.  mine was just a hair under $4000 estimate and it ended up being just under $3k.  I think a lot of that was attributed to the split 50/50 of ground cost with my buddy who went with me (and he's an amatur body builder!!!) as well as us sitting in the back seat during each other's flights.  It was three flights then checkride.

$360 per hour for the twin.  Whatever it was for instrcution, and $500 for the checkride.  Total for me was just a hair under $3k but I need to add it up exactly.  Simply haven't had time.  Put down about $2k to reserve the weekend and then paid the rest once I spent $2k hourly as we went.  Usually it's not three  but four flights or more prior to the checkride.  Again, we each learned a ton watching the other pilot while sitting in the back seat.

Did I mention it was a SWEET flying Baron - I was amazed - not a ratty old thing but a very well maintained very smooht running machine.

-Seth

[Raptor05121]

Do you have any twin experience? How many hours did it take you start to finish? I'm about to go for mine once I get my SEL COMM done

[Seth]

Previous twin experience:

I had .6 ME logged in a Seminole from 2010 or 2011.

I logged 5.2 of ME over the weekend including the 1.3 checkride.  So I left with 5.8 total logged ME time.  I’ve since picked up another 1.4 ME as a safety pilot for a buddy of mine with a Twin Comanche (former Mooney M20E owner).

Flights were:

1.5 and 1.4 on Saturday

1.0 stage check Sunday

1.3 Check ride on Monday.

My friend Ben flew one flight Saturday between my flights and then two on Sunday around my flight.  I took the checkride first and he took it second.

Again, on Saturday and Sunday we each rode in the backseat during each other’s training flights which helped us tremendously (my opinion).

 

I had a handful of non-loggable right seat time in a King Air, Citation, Twin Comanche, and Cessna 414 over the last 10 years.

 

They had certain study material for us to learn prior to arriving and we (Ben and I) both agreed we were not prepared at all for the weekend.  We didn’t get nearly any studying don’t prior to arrival between work, life, etc.  having a study buddy helped on a Saturday and Sunday. We shared a room at a local hotel.  We are both pretty current pilots and proficient with flying IFR which helps, but the Baron was really a sweet flying plane which made everything not as difficult as we thought it would be.  We worked hard but didn’t feel beat up.  We both learned a ton.

I fully recommend Elon Aviation.  The DPE owns the flight school and then Baron itself.  You won’t meet him until your checkride morning.  He is fair but he’ll fail you if you mess up.  He’s very good.  His instructors are good.  I recommend it.

 

-Seth

 

Edited August 28, 2019 by Seth

[Brian E.]

Congrats--thanks for the report!

[carusoam]

Is your buddy’s name Tom?

Tom had a Mooney before going to a twin... E to Comanche...?

Best regards,

-a-

[KLRDMD]

On 8/26/2019 at 5:44 PM, Seth said:

We flew a sweet running BE-55 Baron.  I was REALLY impressed by the Baron.  Really impressed.  If my requirements for our next plane did not include pressurization, I’d highly consider a Baron.  

I've had two, they are quite nice indeed.

[Seth]

17 hours ago, KLRDMD said:

I've had two, they are quite nice indeed.

Would you go P-Baron?  

[Seth]

17 hours ago, carusoam said:

Is your buddy’s name Tom?

Tom had a Mooney before going to a twin... E to Comanche...?

Best regards,

-a-

Tim - two of the three letters correct!  He also had a Bonanza and 172.  Be now has the Twin Commanche

[KLRDMD]

7 hours ago, Seth said:

Would you go P-Baron?  

Probably not. Aerostar most probably. 601P. The 700 is amazing but it burns massive amounts of fuel. But damn is is fast!

Possibly I would go with a 340A. The problem with the 340 is a 421 costs the same to own and fly and a nice B model will be priced well.

Edited August 29, 2019 by KLRDMD

[Raptor05121]

Awesome. I've had a few friends tell me its doable under 10 hours but I never thought that low. Congrats!

[Seth]

2 hours ago, Raptor05121 said:

Awesome. I've had a few friends tell me its doable under 10 hours but I never thought that low. Congrats!

Thanks!  Go ahead schedule it and get it done. I was amazed at the lower cost with a study buddy who did the rating at the same time.  Sitting in the back seat was like getting extra training at zero dollar cost.  Also, having a study buddy over the weekend to go over procedures, knowledge, systems, concepts, it helped.  

 

-Seth

[Seth]

9 hours ago, KLRDMD said:

Probably not. Aerostar most probably. 601P. The 700 is amazing but it burns massive amounts of fuel. But damn is is fast!

Possibly I would go with a 340A. The problem with the 340 is a 421 costs the same to own and fly and a nice B model will be priced well.

I was thinking Aerostar or Cheynne II.  But that’s a big step up from my Mooney!

[KLRDMD]

4 hours ago, Seth said:

I was thinking Aerostar or Cheynne II.  But that’s a big step up from my Mooney!

Aerostar if you want efficient and fast. Cheyenne if you need the room and useful load.

[KLRDMD]

7 hours ago, Raptor05121 said:

Awesome. I've had a few friends tell me its doable under 10 hours but I never thought that low. Congrats!

I think I took 12 which is fairly typical, I believe. But that was a long time ago too.