POCATELLO — Oregon-based Pureflight Aviation Training will soon be coming to the Pocatello Regional Airport, offering comprehensive instruction and accreditation for a variety of flight school pathways.
Pureflight has decades of expertise in flight training, instructing thousands of students in their established and tested program. The school offers helicopter and fixed wing training and has an established college program through Klamath Community College which offers an aviation science degree enabling students to go on to become commercial pilots.
Bannock Development Corp. was instrumental in bringing the flight school organization to the Gate City area, working for 18 months to achieve the feat. Thanks in part to MiaCate Kennedy I, CEO of Bannock Development Corp., a strong relationship was created between the two organizations, which is now resulting in new potential economic and educational opportunities.
“It is a 141 flight school that is Federal Aviation Administration-certified and that's super important,” Kennedy said. “Veterans Affairs members can also get scholarships and get their flight training. The other important thing is why it's so important to our area. It really connects us to the domestic and international markets because airports are economy of scale and in economic development all of this will increase traffic at the airport, and that gives us a lot of visibility. We've already been mentioned at Oshkosh, which is the biggest air show in the nation, and news travels fast, so we're already having people who want to apply for positions and also attend the school.”
Part 141 flight schools are FAA-certified schools that follow the regulations of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations part 141.
Pureflight also has the proper U.S. immigration and customs certifications, so foreign students can also attend and get their degrees.
According to Kennedy, the school will eventually utilize four planes and a couple of helicopters. Expansion is also on the docket, with the potential to add aircraft like jets, flight simulators for training and constructing a large-sized hanger to accommodate their planes. Pureflight will utilize an already existing building for their instruction classes.
The flight school would hire around 15 new employees to work in various capacities, once the preparatory work is finished.
Over the next two months, components, planes, equipment and other essentials will be brought over to the Pocatello airport in anticipation for a launch in late fall. Weather permitting, there may be an airshow to kick off its grand opening.
Pureflight will offer plenty of avenues for any aviation enthusiast, from firefighter rescue pilots to private and commercial aviators. It provides more opportunities for young children and adolescents that want to be involved with careers in aviation when they grow to adulthood. Instead of finding programs from other states or that may be hundreds if not thousands of miles away, they can now take flight in their own hometown.
“I preach this all the time when I'm out there, but our biggest asset is the airport for the city of Pocatello and our area,” Kennedy said. “That's a huge asset that people don't even realize. There's probably no other airport in the nation right now that has those two huge runways. I mean, a 10,000-foot runway, I can't even overestimate the property around that. It’s such a huge economy and it’s going to be so great for us. It really does a lot for us.”
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