Multi-Engine · Part 61
Add The Twin Without Changing Schools
The multi-engine rating and the multi-engine instructor certificate, flown in the school's own Piper PA-44 Seminole at Sacramento McClellan. A school this size usually sends you across the field for the twin. This one does not have to.
What It Costs
$110an hour of flight education, all in
The same rate as everything else here, in the twin as in the Cessnas — the aeroplane and your instructor on one line, with fuel and oil in it. Multi-engine time is short and dense, so the total is driven by how ready you arrive rather than by how many weeks you spend. The MEI range below is the school's own planning figure; the multi-engine rating on its own we quote against your logbook, because what is left to fly depends entirely on what is already in it.
- $4,500–$7,500
- MEI, typical budget
- quoted
- multi-engine rating, against your logbook
Two Engines, And What The Second One Actually Costs You
A multi-engine rating is an add-on to a certificate you already hold, and it is mostly a course in what to do when half the aeroplane stops.
- Almost every professional flying job that pays is flown on a twin, so the rating is the step between a commercial certificate and a first job.
- The flying itself is short — this is a rating measured in hours, not months, once you hold the certificate underneath it.
- What takes the time is engine-out work: identifying the dead engine, holding the aeroplane straight, and deciding whether to continue or land.
- The MEI goes one further and asks you to teach all of that from the right seat while a candidate is doing it wrong.
For the multi-engine rating you need a pilot certificate to add it to, and a current medical. For the MEI you need a commercial certificate, a multi-engine rating and a current CFI. Bring the logbook and we will tell you which of those you are missing before you spend anything.
The aeroplane, who teaches it, and the parts candidates are least warned about.
The Aeroplane You Fly It In
The Piper PA-44 Seminole is a four-seat twin, and it is the aircraft the multi-engine rating and the MEI are flown in here. It sits on the same ramp as the Cessnas, on the same schedule, at the same hourly rate.
That matters more than it sounds. The usual arrangement for a school this size is to teach everything up to the commercial and then hand you to an operator across the field for the twin — which means a new checkout, a new instructor who does not know your flying, and a gap in the middle of the one rating where continuity helps most. Here the aeroplane changes and nothing else does.
See all four aircraftEngine-Out Work Is The Course
A multi-engine rating is not a course in flying a bigger aeroplane. Straight and level on two engines is easier than a Cessna. The rating exists for the ten seconds after one engine quits, and almost all of the training time goes there: identifying which engine failed, keeping the aeroplane pointing where you want it, and being honest about whether continuing is a better idea than landing.
It is drilled because it has to be automatic. A twin with an engine out is less forgiving than a single with an engine out, not more, and the accident record for the rating is mostly about pilots who got the identification wrong under pressure. Expect to fly it until the response stops requiring thought.
Who Teaches It
Denis oversees the multi-engine stages, as he does the commercial and the instructor certificates. If you are already training here, the person who set your syllabus is the person flying the twin with you rather than somebody meeting you for the first time on the day.
If you are coming from outside, bring the logbook to the first conversation. What is left to fly is a logbook question before it is a money question, and we would rather tell you that on the phone than after you have paid for an hour to find out.
Meet the instructorsWhat You Pay Other People
The hourly rate covers the aeroplane and the instructor and nothing else, here as everywhere on this site. The examiner's fee for the checkride is paid directly to the examiner, and the medical to the examiner who issues it.
The MEI range on this page excludes the examiner. It is a planning figure built from the school's own syllabus, not a package price, and what moves it is the same thing that moves every other figure here — how many hours you need, which depends on what you can already do when you arrive.
The full rate cardDo You Really Fly The Twin Here?
Yes. The Piper PA-44 Seminole is one of the school's four aircraft and lives on the same ramp at Sacramento McClellan as the Cessnas. The multi-engine rating and the MEI are both flown in it.
How Long Does The Multi-Engine Rating Take?
It is a short rating in flying terms, and how short depends almost entirely on what you already hold and how recently you flew it. We quote it against your logbook rather than publishing an hour figure, because a number published here would be wrong for most of the people reading it.
What Do I Need Before The MEI?
A commercial certificate, a multi-engine rating and a current CFI. If you are missing the multi-engine rating, that is the thing to add first, and it can be flown here in the same aeroplane.
Is The Rate Different In The Twin?
No. Flight education is $110 an hour, all in, in the Seminole exactly as in the Cessnas — the aeroplane and your instructor together, with fuel and oil included.
Can I Rent The Seminole?
The school's aircraft fly with its students rather than on rental. If you hold a multi-engine rating and want hours rather than instruction, tell us what you are trying to do and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right place for it.
From The Flight Line
The school as it flies — straight from its Instagram.
Ready When You Are
Bring The Logbook
Tell us what you hold and what you are aiming at, and we will tell you what is left to fly and what it costs before you book anything.