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Thoughts
Bob, here's my nickels worth. If you do not already have your ME rating, you'll have to get it of course. I did not have the ME rating when we bought ours, and Don Hickman, who's name you'll see, did not have his. I took the intensive course approach, and got a conventional ME rating. Don flew with an instructor and got his ME-CLT ONLY rating. Given some of the stories Don has related to us, I think mine was a better approach. I went to Clyde Fredrickson's course at Red Bird airport in Dallas. He does the ME for fixed price, in a Beech Travel-Air. Don spent a lot of money on plane maintenance getting his ratings. It's one thing to do an air start, failed engine on take-off, etc., in a training plane, where someone else pays the maintenance bill. It's quite another to do things in your plane. Also, by the end of a week, I was ME rated. I think it took Don quite a bit of time to get his. Lastly, finding a DPE that can give you a ME-CLT ONLY rating in a Skymaster can be difficult. Don lives in southern Indiana, and had to fly to Flint, MI, north of Detroit, to do his check ride.
IF you are already instrument rated, I was not, you can get a ME with Instrument added. If you are not already instrument rated, finding a DPE to do the Instrument thing will not be difficult. Incidentally, if you were conventioally ME rated, and got the check ride for Instruments in your Skymaster, you will end up with a conventional MEI rating, no CLT restriction.
I found insurance to be a challenge. I was a 130 hour private pilot, no instrument, no High Perf, when I went shopping. It was solved, and not as expensively as I was first led to believe.
Hope this helps.
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