Hello everyone,

I fly floats commercially and am planning on moving onto multi IFR. I know almost nothing about the IFR world, and was hoping for some guidance.

My current proposed timeline is:
Summer 2020 Work/Study
Winter 2020/1 Write INRAT, Get Multi (I CANNOT do IFR this winter)
Summer 2021 Work/Study
Winter 2021/2 Write SAMRA/SARON, Get Group 1 IFR
Spring 2022 Look for Multi IFR Job

I am curious if this is a smart order of operations. As I have my commercial I don’t need too many hours to get instrument rated, but I need to buckle down and learn stuff backwards and forwards before training to minimize flight time above the necessary 40 hours.

Is it worth getting my multi out of the way, and then the following winter doing all my IFR training in said multi?

How much flight time might be reasonable for me to expect to knock off that IFR? I should be sitting at 2000 hours, 90% floats by then.

Thanks!

Unless you need the multi rating sooner to fly a VFR Twotter or Beech 18 on floats or something, I'd wait and do it all together.

Do you multi-engine at the same time as the IFR.

You won't loose the hand on the airplane between and IFR is still about handling and check-list.

Ah yes, February 2020, what a great time to be planning for the future.

bangalore wrote: ↑Thu Jun 12, 2025 6:49 pm Ah yes, February 2020, what a great time to be planning for the future.

And… Where are you at now brother?

TPC

TeePeeCreeper wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 12:20 am

bangalore wrote: ↑Thu Jun 12, 2025 6:49 pm Ah yes, February 2020, what a great time to be planning for the future.

And… Where are you at now brother?

TPC

I didn’t fly for a couple years and did office work during COVID, been on floats since, and now the industry sucks and I’m studying for multi-IFR. Should’ve done it sooner, but with a young family I don’t know that it would’ve been possible. Getting a mortgage in March of 2020 was a time.

bangalore wrote: ↑Sun Jun 15, 2025 11:17 am

TeePeeCreeper wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 12:20 am

bangalore wrote: ↑Thu Jun 12, 2025 6:49 pm Ah yes, February 2020, what a great time to be planning for the future.

And… Where are you at now brother?

TPC

I didn’t fly for a couple years and did office work during COVID, been on floats since, and now the industry sucks and I’m studying for multi-IFR. Should’ve done it sooner, but with a young family I don’t know that it would’ve been possible. Getting a mortgage in March of 2020 was a time.

Good for you! I'm sure you're having tons of fun on the floats.

bangalore wrote: ↑Sun Jun 15, 2025 11:17 am

TeePeeCreeper wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 12:20 am

bangalore wrote: ↑Thu Jun 12, 2025 6:49 pm Ah yes, February 2020, what a great time to be planning for the future.

And… Where are you at now brother?

TPC

I didn’t fly for a couple years and did office work during COVID, been on floats since, and now the industry sucks and I’m studying for multi-IFR. Should’ve done it sooner, but with a young family I don’t know that it would’ve been possible. Getting a mortgage in March of 2020 was a time.

For what it's worth - the industry is just one big game of musical chairs. Incredibly hard to time. For as long as the music stops, it will start again.
Best of luck.