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Multi-Engine Instructor rating is required to teach multi-engine pilot courses. Teaching multi-engine aircraft maneuvers is a lot of fun, and rewarding, if done right. There are a lot of things that can, and probably will go wrong during your career as a multi-engine instructor, but with proper training and discipline you should be able to manage any situation and emergency. And all this is covered in our MEI training course.
The MEI course here at CFI Academy is 5 days in duration (3 days in most cases). There is no FAA knowledge exam or written exam required for an MEI add on rating.
Pre-requisites
A current FAA Commercial Pilot certificate and a CFI certificate (expired CFI is fine as well).
A minimum of class III medical certificate.
At least 10 hours of PIC time on a multi-engine airplane. If you do not have this time, you can still join the course, and pay for the extra rental time. 15 hours PIC on ME is required for MEI checkride, and the course includes 5, so you need additional 10.
Course Structure
The MEI add-on course is 10 hours of ground school covering the MEI maneuvers, lesson plans, emergencies, systems, aerodynamics and practice teaching. The flight portion is 5 hours with you teaching and flying the airplane from the right seat. The flight portion is all VFR maneuvers and does not include/need any IFR work. Besides all the ME add-on maneuvers that you did during your commercial multi-engine add on rating, there is one additional maneuvers: drag demo.
Typical Training Day
A typical training day for MEI course is: hours ground school and 2 training flights of about an hour each. You will be ready for the checkride on the 3rd or 4th day.
Course Tuition Fee
The course tuition fee is $2500 and includes the following:
All the ground school required for MEI (10+ hours)
7 hours of multi-engine airplane rental (wet) – 5 for MEI training (PIC Time) and 2 for checkride
5 hours of flight instruction in the ME airplane
Note: You will need to have a total of 15 hours PIC in ME for the checkride. So either bring 10 hours PIC (ME) with you, or better if you just rent our multi-engine airplane, with an MEI (onboard) at $250. This rate is valid only for this purpose.
The course tuition fee does not include:
The books and training material (about $75)
DPE examiner fee (about $450)
Accommodation, room and boarding, food etc
Any additional aircraft rental, flight or ground instruction required in case of a re-test.
($250/hour multi-engine rental, $50/hour flight or ground instruction)
Course Duration
Even though we claim that the course duration is 5 days, in most cases the applicants finish it up in 3 days. Plan for 5 days just in case there are any delays beyond our control, like weather, maintenance, DPE related etc.