Multi Engine Instrument Rating (MEIR)

Remember when you were a kid and enjoyed collecting stickers and stamps? Well, that's what it is to be a pilot. It seems to be all about collecting stickers and ratings. I have a logbook full of them. Well, a handful of ratings, but a whole heap of stickers. When you're training you get a sticker for each step along the way. You get a sticker at various stages of training.

You get a sticker each time you do a new type rating. A sticker for night rating. A sticker each time your licence goes up to the next level. Hell, you even get a sticker for turning up to a CAA seminar. Well I'm working on collecting a new sticker. This is for my MEIR. For anyone wishing to make a living out of flying, this rating is esential to getting a job which pays more than lunch money. This is the rating that allows you to fly an aircraft with two or more engines on an instrument flight plan. Yep, flying with the big boys. And girls.


As this rating is quite intensive, I decided to go to Nelson Aviation College. I wanted to go somewhere where everything was taken care of. And taken care of I have been. I'm living on site at the airfield, three meals a day are prepared for me, and all I have to do is turn up to class. It's like being a kid again!!

At the moment I am just doing the theory course, which takes three weeks. This consists of three papers with matching exams. This will be followed early next year by 12 weeks of flying, finishing with a flight test. So that's what I'm doing right now. Now let me tell you about my first week...