The instrument rating requires 40 hours of hood time, but only 15 hours must be with a CFII.  Is it really possible, that you could pay a CFII for 15 hours and still accomplish an instrument rating?  Yes!  Working with a training partner to accomplish your instrument rating is the best way.  I'm not referring to a simple safety pilot relationship; I'm referring to a fully integrated training regiment in which two people can maximize the synergies of working together.  Not only can you learn quicker, its cheaper, and you can finish your rating in a shorter period of time.  How much cost savings is possible?  You can cut your costs by 1/3.  To achieve this, consider the following effort:

• Observe each other's flight lessons.  By doing so, you'll be learning by observing.  The added benefit is that you're not the one under pressure.  The experts know that we learn better when we're relaxed.
• Get your written test out of the way before starting flight training.  Once you get started with your flight training, you'll find yourself quickly progressing towards a checkride and you won't want that written exam hanging over you.
  
• After taking a flight lesson with a CFII, reinforce your skills by immediately repeating the lesson with your safety pilot.  Switch seats and repeat the lesson again. 
  
• Because building wrong skills and habits can be deadly, if not costly to fix, be sure to stick with the lesson taught.  If there is a disagreement between training partners about what was taught, refer back to your flight instructor.
• Review the sample syllabus below.  You will notice that flight proficiency builds quickly while the cost of training is reduced.  Jim & Ted do not pay the CFII for flight #3 and #4 and as an added benefit, both can log the time as safety pilot to each other.
  
• The syllabus below does not incorporate ground training.  There is considerable ground training required for an instrument rating, but skills can be learned quickly by learning together.
  
• Each flight lesson should be preceded by a briefing so that students are well prepared for what is to come.  It's often said that if a student screws up in flying, its because he didn't understand what he was supposed to do.  By working with a training partner, flight proficiency is built quickly, and that all important "flying muscle memory" is strengthened.
• When you are acting as safety pilot, your primary responsibility is to be visual with your eyes outside the cockpit 97% of the time.  The other 3% of your time should be monitoring the pilot flying (PF).  As such, it is your responsibility to challenge flying that doesn't meet standards such as off heading, off altitude, off course, etc.  Use the call-outs in the related article:  CRM in Training.

What will the logbook look like?

Below is a sample of Jim's logbook.  It presents the best case scenario that you only needed 15 hours from your CFII.  It does fall short as hood time results in only 23 hours of hood time.  An additional 17 hours would be required which could be used to boost cross country time (if needed) or instrument approaches.  Jim's logbook will look like this:

Description	Flight Time	Safety Pilot Time	Hood Time	Dual Recvd	Total PIC Time
Lesson #1	1.5		1.5	1.5	1.5
Practicing Lesson #1	1.5		1.5		1.5
Safety Pilot for Ted (Lesson #1)	1.5	1.5			1.5
Lesson #2	1.5		1.5	1.5	1.5
Practicing Lesson #2	1.5		1.5		1.5
Safety Pilot for Ted (Lesson #2)	1.5	1.5			1.5
Lesson  #3	1.5		1.5	1.5	1.5
Practicing Lesson #3	1.5		1.5		1.5
Safety Pilot for Ted (Lesson #3)	1.5	1.5			1.5
Lesson #4	1.5		1.5	1.5	1.5
Practicing Lesson #4	1.5		1.5		1.5
Safety Pilot for Ted (Lesson #4)	1.5	1.5			1.5
Lesson #5	1.5		1.5	1.5	1.5
Practicing Lesson #5	1.5		1.5		1.5
Safety Pilot for Ted (Lesson #5)	1.5	1.5			1.5
Lesson #6	1.5		1.5	1.5	1.5
Practicing Lesson #6	1.5		1.5		1.5
Safety Pilot for Ted (Lesson #6)	1.5	1.5			1.5
Lesson #7 - Remediation	2.0		2.0	2.0	2.0
Practicing Lesson #7	2.0		2.0		2.0
Safety Pilot for Ted (Lesson #7)	2.0	2.0			2.0
Long Cross Country	4.0		3.5	4.0	4.0
Checkride Preparation	3.0		2.5	3.0	3.0
TOTAL	40.0	11.0	28.0	18.0	40.0

Note:  These times are best case scenario.  Nothing in life is guaranteed, some people take longer than others to achieve the skills to accomplish an instrument rating.

Selecting a training partner

If you have someone already in mind, great!  As you already know, getting a rating is challenging and requires a fair amount of time and commitment.  As you can see from the logbook excerpt above, when you work with a training partner even more time is required.  That can be good because if you want as much time as possible, this is the cheapest way to go.  There are four factors to consider in working with a training partner:

1. Flight training is extremely personal.  We expose our skills (or lack of skills) to a flight instructor.  Under this program, now you expose yourself to your flight instructor and your training partner. 
   
2. In addition, the ground training required is going to require that you spend a lot of time together.  Be sure you like each other. 
   
3. Even more important is that you have managed the expectations of your training partner in regards to the training schedule, costs, safety pilot time & procedures, additional training, and other deal breakers.
4. Understand that you're going to have to work hard so that you are prepared for each flight lesson.  Not being prepared is not only a disappointment to your flight instructor, it costs you extra money, and its going to annoy your training partner.

Cross Country Time

An instrument rating also requires 50 hours PIC Cross Country.  That is defined as you flying to a point 50 NM or greater from your departure point and landing.  The landing is key.  If you have a safety pilot, he can't log that time as cross country because he did not do the landing.  Your safety pilot can still log PIC when you are under the hood during the flight. 

Who Pays?

Notice in the logbook excerpt that Jim pays for 24 hours of flight time, but 33 hours of PIC time is logged because of the safety pilot rules.  How does it work?  There are two methods:

1. You only pay for time you're in the left seat. When you're observing backseat, you're not paying, and when you are a safety pilot for your training partner, you're not paying.  This is a good method when you are working on an instrument rating with a dependable training partner.  If one partner needs more flight time than the other, the other isn't burdened with the added cost.
   
2. Split everything exactly 50/50.  This is a good method for similarly skilled pilots who care about flight time just as much as getting their rating done. 
   

Both methods assume a qualified, dependable training partner. 

Sample Syllabus for an Instrument Rating

Jim & Ted are going to do their instrument rating together.  The following table describes the roles of each of the training partners during each lesson.  NOTE:  This syllabus is not a complete training guide for an instrument rating.  Contact a competent CFII to design a training syllabus that fits your skill, aircraft, and requirements.

Lesson Description	Flight	Duration	Jim	Ted	CFII
1.  Basic Attitude Instrument Flying - Turns, climbs, descents, straight & level.  Constant rate climbs & descents.  IFR to VFR transition.	#1	1.5	Lesson #1	Observes	Teaches Lesson #1
	#2	1.5	Observes	Lesson #1	Teaches Lesson #1
	#3	1.5	Practices lesson one.	Safety Pilot	at home sleeping
	#4	1.5	Safety Pilot	Practices lesson one.	at home sleeping
2.  Pitch + power work.  Magnetic compass work, timed compass turns, unusual attitudes, instrument takeoff.	#5	1.5	Lesson #2	Observes	Teaches Lesson #2
	#6	1.5	Observes	Lesson #2	Teaches Lesson #2
	#7	1.5	Practices lesson two	Safety Pilot	at home sleeping
	#8	1.5	Safety Pilot	Practices lesson two	at home sleeping
3.  VOR usage, accuracy, intercept courses, radials, navigation, and holding.	#9	1.5	Lesson #3	Observes	Teaches Lesson #3
	#10	1.5	Observes	Lesson #3	Teaches Lesson #3
	#11	1.5	Practices lesson three	Safety Pilot	at home sleeping
	#12	1.5	Safety Pilot	Practices lesson three	at home sleeping
4. VOR Approaches, missed approaches, circling approaches, procedure turns, DME Arcs	#13	1.5	Lesson #4	Observes	Teaches Lesson #4
	#14	1.5	Observes	Lesson #4	Teaches Lesson #4
	#15	1.5	Practices lesson four	Safety Pilot	at home sleeping
	#16	1.5	Safety Pilot	Practices lesson four	at home sleeping
5.  LOC & ILS Approaches, sidestep, radar vectors to the approach.	#17	1.5	Lesson #5	Observes	Teaches Lesson #5
	#18	1.5	Observes	Lesson #5	Teaches Lesson #5
	#19	1.5	Practices lesson five	Safety Pilot	at home sleeping
	#20	1.5	Safety Pilot	Practices lesson five	at home sleeping
6.  Partial panel approaches.  No Gyro vectoring & approach.	#21	1.5	Lesson #6	Observes	Teaches Lesson #6
	#22	1.5	Observes	Lesson #6	Teaches Lesson #6
	#23	1.5	Practices lesson six	Safety Pilot	at home sleeping
	#24	1.5	Safety Pilot	Practices lesson six	at home sleeping
7. Remediation of skills - repeat as needed	#25	2.0	Practices	Safety Pilot	at home
	#26	2.0	Safety Pilot	Practices	at home
8.  Long cross country	#27	4.0	Flies X/C	Observes	Teaches X/C
	#28	4.0	Observes	Flies X/C	Teaches X/C
9.  Checkride preparation	#29	2.0	Receives checkride prep	Observes	Teaches checkride prep
	#30	2.0	Observes	Receives checkride prep	Teaches checkride prep

Obviously some of these lessons would need to be repeated depending on pilot skill.  Assuming perfect performance and completion in 40 hours according to Jim's logbook above, each pilot would have:

• gotten 11 hours more flight time by acting as safety pilot for his training partner
• paid for 11 hours less CFII time by using a safety pilot
  
• gotten through much quicker since the students were not at the mercy of the CFII's schedule