Multi-Engine Rating: $5,100, and Most Pilots Finish in 10 to 15 Hours
There is no minimum flight-hour requirement in 14 CFR 61.63 for adding a multi-engine class rating to a certificate you already hold. That one line of regulation is why this is the fastest rating you will ever add, and why we quote a flat $5,100 instead of running a meter on a twin.
A multi-engine rating is a class rating, not a new certificate
You already hold a pilot certificate. The multi-engine rating adds a class — airplane multi-engine land, written on your certificate as AMEL — to the privileges you have. Nothing you already earned goes away. If you are a private pilot today, you finish as a private pilot who may carry passengers in a twin. If you are a commercial pilot, you finish with commercial multi-engine privileges, which is the version the airlines and the charter operators care about.
That distinction matters more than most people realize when they start pricing it. You are not repeating your private pilot training in a bigger airplane. You are learning one specific thing: what happens when half your thrust quits, and what a twin does to you if you handle it badly. Everything else — navigation, radio work, airspace, landings — you already know.
The rating is also the last cheap thing in aviation. A private pilot certificate takes months. An instrument rating takes months. This one takes days, because the FAA does not impose an hour floor on it, and because there is a finite list of maneuvers to master. Ten to fifteen hours is the honest number for a pilot who arrives current and prepared.
There is no minimum hour requirement, and that is the whole story
Every other rating you have earned came with a number attached. This one does not, and it changes the economics completely.
FAR 61.109 sets 40 hours for a private pilot certificate. FAR 61.65 sets 40 hours of instrument time for an instrument rating. FAR 61.129 sets 250 hours for a commercial certificate. Now read 14 CFR 61.63(c), which governs adding a class rating to a certificate you already hold: it requires that you receive and log training from an authorized instructor, that the instructor endorses you as proficient, and that you pass a practical test. It names no hour total. There is no written exam either, for the same reason — 61.63(c) waives the knowledge test when you are adding a class rating in the same category.
So the length of your multi-engine course is set by one thing: how quickly you become genuinely proficient at engine-out flying. For a current pilot who has done the reading before the first lesson, that is usually ten to fifteen hours. We have signed people off closer to ten. We have also flown twenty with pilots who had not touched an aircraft in eight months, and that was the right call both times.
Do not read "no minimum" as "easy". Read it as "the examiner decides, not the logbook". A twin will kill you faster than a single if you mishandle an engine failure below a certain speed, and the practical test is built around proving that you will not.
What $5,100 buys, and why it is a fixed number
A twin costs materially more per hour to operate than a single. Two engines, two propellers, two of every accessory, and a retractable gear system to inspect. That is exactly why we price this course as a package rather than an open meter.
| What is included | Detail |
|---|---|
| Piper Seminole flight time, wet | Fuel included |
| Dual instruction with a multi-engine instructor | Every flight hour |
| Ground instruction — systems, performance, Vmc theory | Included |
| Redbird MCX full-motion simulator work | Included |
| Checkride preparation and the proficiency endorsement | Included |
| Books and training materials | Included |
| Complete multi-engine add-on | $5,100 |
The examiner is booked and paid separately, as is standard everywhere — we will tell you what to expect when you enrol, and we schedule it for you. Financing starts at $2,500 down with monthly plans through Stratus Financial or in house.
Here is the honest case for a fixed price on a twin specifically. On a single-engine hourly meter, a slow week costs you a few hundred dollars. On a twin, the same slow week costs a great deal more, and the pressure that creates is bad for training. Students start declining the extra Vmc demonstration they actually need. We would rather absorb the variance ourselves and have you fly the syllabus properly.
Six things that make a twin different, and they are the entire course
Multi-engine training is not general flying practice. It is a short, specific list, drilled until your response to a failure is automatic.
Vmc — minimum control speed
The slowest airspeed at which you can keep the aircraft under directional control with the critical engine failed and the other at full power. Below it, the aircraft rolls and yaws toward the dead engine and rudder cannot stop it. It is marked as a red radial line on the airspeed indicator.
The critical engine
On most conventional twins, both propellers turn the same direction, so losing the left engine hurts more than losing the right. The descending blade of the operating engine sits further from the fuselage centerline and produces a longer moment arm. In the Seminole this is a non-issue by design, and we explain why below.
Asymmetric thrust
One engine pushing on one side produces a yaw and a roll toward the failed side. You stop it with rudder and a few degrees of bank into the good engine. Getting the bank angle wrong is the single most common reason a Vmc demonstration goes badly.
Drag — and where it hides
A windmilling propeller on a dead engine produces more drag than the whole airplane needs to lose. Extended gear, extended flaps and a stationary but unfeathered blade will each take away climb performance you cannot spare.
Feathering
Feathering turns the dead propeller blades edge-on to the airflow so they stop windmilling. It is the single largest performance recovery available to you after a failure, and identifying the correct engine before you feather is why the drill is verbalized out loud every time.
Single-engine performance
A light twin on one engine does not climb like a single. It climbs at a few hundred feet per minute on a good day, and on a hot Los Angeles afternoon at gross weight it may only hold altitude. Learning to read the single-engine service ceiling honestly is the difference between a plan and a hope.
You train in our Piper Seminole, not a broker’s twin
The Seminole is the aircraft most multi-engine ratings in the United States are flown in, and there are good reasons for that. It has counter-rotating propellers, which means there is no critical engine — the two engines turn opposite directions, so a failure on either side behaves the same. It is a light twin with retractable gear and constant-speed feathering propellers, which is exactly the systems set the practical test is written around.
It is ours. We bought it, we maintain it on our schedule, and instruction-for-hire aircraft come due for a 100-hour inspection under FAR 91.409(b), which we do not defer. The practical consequence for you is that a twin cannot vanish off the schedule mid-course because the owner took it to Cabo, which is a real and common failure mode when a school rents its multi-engine time from somebody else.
Being based at Van Nuys helps here too. It is a Class D field under the LAX Class B shelf with two parallel runways, so pattern work and engine-out approaches happen without a forty-minute transit to get somewhere useful. And we measured 355 flyable days a year here, which for a course this short is the difference between finishing in a week and finishing in a month.
The checkride is almost entirely about engine-out handling
Steep turns and stalls appear. They are not what you are being tested on.
An examiner assessing a multi-engine add-on has a narrow question to answer: if this pilot loses an engine, do they do the right things in the right order, or do they do something that ends badly. So the ride is built around engine failures — on the ground before rotation, after lift-off, in the climb, in cruise, and during an approach. You will be asked to demonstrate a Vmc scenario, to identify and secure a failed engine, to fly a single-engine approach and landing, and to do a single-engine go-around decision honestly, which sometimes means saying out loud that a go-around is not available.
The verbal drill matters as much as the flying. Identify, verify, feather. Say it every time. Examiners fail people who reach for the wrong lever more often than they fail people who fly a slightly loose heading.
One limitation worth knowing before you book. If you hold an instrument rating and you do not demonstrate instrument competency in the multi-engine aircraft on the practical test, the rating is issued with a "VFR only" limitation on your certificate. Removing it later costs another flight and another sign-off. We fly the instrument work as part of the course so this does not happen to you.
Three people who should hold this rating, and one who probably should not
The commercial pilot heading for an airline
Regional airline job postings are written around multi-engine time. You need the rating before you can log any of it, and the first hundred hours of multi time are the slowest to accumulate. Getting the rating early in your commercial build, rather than at the end, is the single most useful piece of scheduling advice on this page.
The owner moving up
If you are buying a Baron, a Twin Comanche or anything with two of everything, insurance will require the rating and then a specific number of dual hours in type on top of it. Doing the rating in a Seminole first is cheaper than doing it in your own airplane, and your insurer will usually accept it.
The future MEI
A multi-engine instructor certificate lets you teach in twins and log the time while doing it, which is how a lot of pilots build multi hours without paying for them. The AMEL rating is the prerequisite. Add it, build a little time, then come back for the instructor certificate.
The private pilot who just wants a twin
You can absolutely do this, and it is a genuinely enjoyable couple of weeks of flying. Be clear-eyed though: renting a twin afterward is expensive, currency in a twin is harder to maintain than in a single, and a rating you never use decays quickly. If the goal is capability rather than a career, an instrument rating will do more for you per dollar.
The twin you train in, and the singles behind it
Every aircraft on this ramp is ours. Inspected on our schedule, flown by our instructors every day, and never subcontracted out to a broker when the schedule gets tight.
Multi-engine training is flown in the Piper Seminole. Single-engine training on our other programs uses Cessna, Piper and Diamond aircraft, with the Cirrus SR22 Turbo on the Premium private pilot program.
Engine failures you can practice without an engine failure
Our Redbird MCX is FAA-approved, fully enclosed and it moves. It is where the identify-verify-feather drill gets hammered in, because the instructor can fail an engine at a moment of their choosing, freeze it, and make you do it again.
Simulator time is included in the $5,100 multi-engine course. Repeating a botched failure drill six times costs nothing here and it is never cancelled for weather.
Multi-engine instructors who teach here as a career
Every instructor on our staff holds a commercial or ATP certificate plus a CFI and a current medical, and the instructor is legally pilot in command on every flight you make with them. Multi-engine instruction is a narrower pool than single-engine instruction, which is exactly why a school that owns its twin and staffs its own MEIs finishes courses on time.
We run a team of eleven instructors, so your ten to fifteen hours are not hostage to one person’s calendar. You are matched to an instructor at enrolment and you can change if the fit is wrong. Nobody will make it awkward.
4.9 stars, 500+ reviews
Across Google and Yelp, three things come up again and again from the pilots who added a rating here.
The debrief, not the airplane
The most repeated compliment in our reviews is the quality of the post-flight debrief. On a course this short, the debrief is where most of the learning actually happens.
The twin was available
Eleven instructors and an aircraft we own means a ten-hour course takes a week, not a season of waiting for somebody else’s airplane to come back.
The price did not move
$5,100 at enrolment is $5,100 at the checkride. Reviewers mention this constantly, and on a twin it matters more than on anything else we teach.
Multi-engine rating pricing
One fixed package for the rating itself, plus the two things people most often add around it.
Multi-Engine Add-On
Piper Seminole flight time, dual instruction, ground school, simulator work, materials and checkride preparation. Most pilots finish in 10 to 15 hours.
- Aircraft Piper Seminole
- FAA hour minimum None
- Typical completion 10–15 hrs
- Financing from $2,500 down
Multi-Engine Discovery Flight
Fly the Seminole with an instructor before you commit to the course. It is a real lesson, the time is loggable dual instruction, and the full price is credited against the program if you enrol within 24 hours.
- Aircraft Piper Seminole
- 90 minutes $699
- Loggable Yes
Instrument Rating
If you do not hold an instrument rating yet, do it before the multi-engine add-on. It is the rating that stops your AMEL being issued VFR only, and it is worth more per dollar than any other rating on this page.
- Program price $11,700
- Simulator credit Included
- Financing from $2,500 down
Book the Seminole for two weeks and walk out with the rating
Enrol and we schedule the aircraft, the instructor and the examiner around you. If you would rather talk through where the rating fits in your plan first, the consultation is free and takes about half an hour. Call (818) 290-8249, or come to 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, Van Nuys.
Multi-engine
The multi-engine training programMulti-engine rating requirementsThe Piper Seminole at Van NuysBecome a flight instructor (CFI / MEI)What happens on an FAA checkrideMulti-engine rating questions, answered
The questions people actually type into Google before they book a twin.
The multi-engine add-on at LA Flight School is $5,100 and that is the complete number: Piper Seminole flight time with fuel, dual instruction, ground school, Redbird MCX simulator work, materials and checkride preparation. It is a fixed package rather than an hourly meter, which matters on a twin because a twin costs considerably more per hour to operate than a single. Financing starts at $2,500 down.
The FAA sets no minimum. 14 CFR 61.63(c) requires training from an authorized instructor, a proficiency endorsement and a passed practical test, but it names no hour total. In practice most pilots finish in 10 to 15 hours of flight training, and a pilot who arrives current and has done the reading is usually closer to 10.
Most pilots complete the multi-engine rating in one to two weeks flying most days, because there is no FAA hour minimum to satisfy. At two lessons a week it stretches to about a month. Van Nuys has 355 flyable days a year, so weather is rarely what sets the pace.
It is short but demanding, and it is demanding in one narrow area: engine-out handling. The flying itself is familiar because you already hold a certificate, but you have to make identify, verify and feather automatic, and you have to understand Vmc well enough to explain it to an examiner. Ten to fifteen hours is enough time for that, and not much more than enough.
Vmc is minimum control speed with the critical engine inoperative: the slowest airspeed at which you can maintain directional control with one engine failed and the other producing full power. Below Vmc the aircraft yaws and rolls toward the dead engine and rudder alone cannot stop it. It is marked as a red radial line on the airspeed indicator, and demonstrating a Vmc scenario is a required task on the practical test.
The critical engine is the one whose failure most adversely affects performance and handling. On a conventional twin where both propellers turn the same direction, that is usually the left engine, because the descending blade of the right propeller sits further from the centerline and gives the remaining engine a longer yawing moment arm. The Piper Seminole we train in has counter-rotating propellers, so it has no critical engine and either failure behaves the same.
Yes, in practice. Airline hiring is built around multi-engine time, and you cannot log any of it without the rating, so the AMEL rating is a prerequisite rather than a bonus. Add it early in your commercial build rather than at the end, because multi-engine hours are the slowest hours in your logbook to accumulate.
Yes. A multi-engine rating is a class rating added to whatever certificate you already hold, so a private pilot finishes as a private pilot with multi-engine privileges. The course, the $5,100 price and the 10 to 15 typical hours are the same. If you later upgrade to a commercial certificate, your multi-engine privileges upgrade with it.
We train multi-engine students in a Piper Seminole that we own and maintain at Van Nuys Airport. It has counter-rotating propellers, retractable gear and constant-speed feathering propellers, which is exactly the systems set the practical test is written around. Because the aircraft is ours it is inspected on our schedule under FAR 91.409(b) and it does not disappear off the booking calendar mid-course.
An MEI is a multi-engine instructor: a flight instructor certificate that lets you give instruction in twins and log the time while being paid for it. The multi-engine rating is the prerequisite, so the usual order is AMEL rating first, then some multi-engine time, then the instructor certificate. It is the most common way pilots build multi-engine hours without paying for them.
You do not need one, but you should have one. If you hold no instrument rating, or you hold one and do not demonstrate instrument competency in the twin on the practical test, the multi-engine rating is issued with a VFR only limitation on your certificate. Removing that limitation later costs another flight and another sign-off, which is why our $11,700 instrument program is the rating we suggest doing first.
For anyone heading toward an airline, yes, and it is the reason to get the rating early rather than late. Multi-engine hours are counted separately by hiring departments and they are the hardest hours in a logbook to accumulate, because twins cost more per hour than singles everywhere. The cheapest route to volume is an MEI certificate, where you are paid to log the time instead of paying for it.
Get the full training plan and price sheet
The three private pilot packages, what each one includes, the financing options and a realistic timeline built around how often you can actually fly. Sent to you in one email. Nobody will pressure you.
- Every package price, itemised
- Financing from $2,500 down
- A timeline based on your schedule