What is the difference between a 141 and 61 school? A question we get A LOT!  141 is generally a much larger school, they can take government funding and are usually a 'pipeline' to the airlines for their instructors.  If you prefer a large school setting, that would be a good fit for you.  A question we get every week - are we 61 or 141? We are 61, we are not large and we will never get any bigger.  Many years ago, we were a flying club with the typical membership format.  But several years ago, our training end of the business became so busy, that we dropped the flying club model, and are purely a school now.  We no longer charge a membership, and we also no longer rent our planes to non-students. 

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 Our focus is to help young instructors move forward with their careers just like a 141 would, but we do it on a smaller and more personal level. We hire instructors who were taught by us with our particular focus on the basics, and in turn they create pilots who perpetuate that skillset and piloting discipline. Our training method focuses very heavily on the feel of flying, after a solid foundation of learning the required speeds for various phases of flight has been mastered. Once this "instinctive" feel for flying has been learned,  you will find transitioning to new aircraft to be a fairly simple project, because you have learned what a safe feel and response is from the plane, as you fly.

But!  This is NOT a replacement for instrument interpretation while flying at night or in the clouds.  "Feel" when you cannot see well outside is deadly!  Your training includes at least three hours of flying purely with no outside reference, using a view limiting device, and you will quickly learn that trying to fly by feel with no outside reference will be disastrous without a thorough development of your instrument flying ability.  Never try to fly by feel without perfect outside reference to depend on!

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We specialize in Old School flying - no electronic calculators, no reliance on the moving map on the GPS screen.  Our emphasis is for understanding of the raw data and knowing where you are on a paper chart at all times.  You can always turn to the moving map page on the GPS, but you cannot always turn to mastery of paper chart navigation when the electronics fail.  And they DO fail.  If this was not the way you were trained at the start, you will not be as proficient during a challenging failed electronics situation, and training for worst case is how every single day should be approached.  There are way too many accident reports of pilots getting into trouble because their iPad quit.  Your paper chart will never turn off. 

Most instruction nowadays considers the paper charts to be a backup.  We consider the moving map on a GPS to be the backup.  (And yes, our planes all have full Garmin panels, our 172's and 182 have dual GPS units) Does this mean we will not use ForeFlight?  Nope, it does not mean that at all.  It means we teach you to FLY, and not rely on electronics.  Our students who use ForeFlight are highly proficient using it, but they are equally proficient with paper.  

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The curricula for 61 and 141 are the same, so you will not learn more or less by going with either type school.  Owners Jim and Lisa personally train many of the students at Snake River, and during your training you will not only fly with your regular full time instructor, you will also get reviews from Lisa and/or Jim.  With 39 and 29 years as a CFI's respectively, it is a great way to prep for your solo and your check ride, and feel VERY well prepared. (We want the lessons to be way harder than the check ride will ever be.  That is when you are ready.)