When choosing a flight school, prospective aviation students can choose between two types of flight training schools. The part 61 flight instruction school and the part 141 flight school. While both types of flight training instructions are legitimate methods of pilot training, there are major differences between receiving flight instructions from a part 141 flight school and a part 61 flight school. Each section has it’s own details as regards what is required during its training process which will make the prospective candidates eligible. To have a better understanding of the different types of flight training methods, it is important to know what the term “part” means. The term “part” in this context refers to a section of the Federal Aviation Regulations or FARs. The FARs rolls out the basic prerequisites for pilots, flight schools, and other aviation-related topics.
Many years ago, a group of very large and successful flight schools approached the FAR with the concept of setting up a second set of regulations. The schools proposed that if they could set up a facility that meets FAR standards, a syllabus that was FAR approved, maintain the rigorous records of all flight and ground lessons, open for regular FAR inspections, and have staffs that have the technical know-how about flight operations while reducing or maintaining the overall required hours of training as a secondary competition to the existing flight school. These propositions birthed the part 141 flight school. To date, only a little fraction of all United states flight schools have the FAR part 141 go ahead. Part 61 of the FARs is all for the basic regulations for pilot certification. It describes the various topics that the flight training entails coupled with the number of hours required to obtain each flight certificate, therefore, all flight schools and all flight instructors follow and train to the requirements of the Federal Aviation Regulations part 61 at the initial stage.
The major differences between part 141 flight and part 61 flight
Amount of Hours
Training with a part 141 school is advantageous in that good students to have the opportunity to progress quickly. There is no barbaric structure and that allows students to gain certificates with fewer hours of training under their belt. However, in part 61 flight, there is an established standard of hours that is on the high side needed for training to gain certificates. For instance, a private pilot certificate under part 61 takes 40 flight hours to complete but it takes just 35 hours under part 141. Also, the commercial pilot certificate can be obtained in just 190 flight hours at a part 141 school as opposed to 250 hours under part 61 school.
Nature of Curriculum
The flight programs of the part 141 flight schools possess a well-organized training structure. The program is specifically for the career-minded pilot and its whole curriculum is aimed at creating professionals. On the other hand, part 61 flight schools are aimed at giving a general knowledge of flight operations. While both part 61 and part 141 are monitored by the same regulatory standards, a part 141 environment thrives better in training pilots towards a defined career path in lesser time. There is also a constant review of standards and consistency in the flight 141 schools.
Learning environment
Part 141 schools have an obligation to maintain satisfactory performance rates with or without the FAR checking in on them. But part 61 instructors aren’t always penalized for sub-par performances. For instance, a high rate of failure in the part 61 schools may go unnoticed while in a part 141 environment, poor training methods are taken seriously and scrutinized by the Aviation Board to ensure the standard is maintained. The scrutiny allows part 141 schools to be very fast-paced as learning takes place quickly and students must also study consistently to avoid lagging behind.
