No to both. I have a commercial Instrument RW license and will just transition into my aircraft. A friend of mine who runs a FAA district office said that the minimum I would need to get my CLT is at least 9 hours of instruction and 4 hours of solo. Then, on to the instrument rating.
I bought the plane outright without financing it so I did not have to insure it. I knew, given my lack of qualifications, any insurance company would eat me alive in premiums. So for the first couple of years, I will fly without insurance in order to build my time in the aircraft and then re-look the issue after about a 100 hours.
Do you see any logic in my thought process? I know its a risk, but I have a tendency to always bet on myself. Afterall, 1100 hours of flying attack helicopters and with no accidents is no accident. KD

I agree with the no-insurance decision. On instruction, I think any MEI will do. The CLT license is essentially an ME license without having to show the things that deal with loss of engine with adverse yaw. For purposes of insurance, the instructor may have to have 337 credentials, but in my opinion not for the purpose of getting the license. I could be wrong but hopefully others will chime in to correct me.

FWIW, I was instructed by a plain MEI and I haven't carried insurance since I bought my first (of two) 337s twelve years ago.

Ernie

FYI,
I see 2 337s on ebay for sale and one O2. None of them are really burning up the bidding right now. Kinda sad to see, such a good airframe being beaten up by things outside of its control. One of the 337s is a 79 with 11K hours on it. The family has been trying to sell this plane for quite some time on e-bay. I don't think any of them have exceeded the reserve price as yet.
As far as my plane is concerned, I know several people have spoken of this before but I really wonder if going experimental might be the way to go. I know there are some who say that you are compromising safety, but I don't exactly see it that way. If safety was really a concern then we would have many more homebuilt experimentals falling out of the sky and we don't. I know that bringing it back into type certified would be difficult afterwards but still possible. As far as it ruining the resale, we as my comments above show, they really aren't burning up e-bay right now anyway. Besides, all I want my plane for it to be able to fly VMC/IMC to anywhere in the US. That would be my only concern....what exactly are the limitations they place on an aircraft in experimental category? Thoughts? KD