Neta Snook, Pioneering Aviator & Earhart's Instructor

April 30, 2018 1:54 PM

What it took to learn to fly in the early 1900s. Lots of interesting info on what Ames Iowa was like, such as wooden squares as paving, and how she made her plane. Here's the link to the MessyNessy Snook which has the best photos.
posted by MovableBookLady (7 comments total)

She seems like she was a total hoot, and knowing that she lived to a ripe old age is a comforting thing, given the dangers of early aviation.
posted by Strange Interlude at 2:09 PM on April 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Learning to fly at that time must have felt like science fiction.
posted by TrialByMedia at 3:11 PM on April 30, 2018

For $1 in Liberty bonds per minute in the air, Neta Snook taught Amelia Earhart to fly ...

Holy cow! I live in a fairly expensive part of the country, so I just searched for flight instruction rates in my area, it looks like you can rent a small airplane for about $105-110 an hour, and instruction is about $65 on top of that, so say $175/hour. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator says that $60/hour in 1921 is $788 now.

I had no idea that private aviation had gotten that dramatically cheaper...
posted by straw at 3:54 PM on April 30, 2018

It can cost about $6k - $11k to get a private pilot's license depending on how quickly you learn.
posted by TrialByMedia at 4:21 PM on April 30, 2018

Yeah, AOPA says $7k for a private pilot cert, which'd be 40 flight hours. Not all of those flight hours would need the instructor, but at 1921 prices adjusted for inflation that'd be $31.5k now in flight hours alone.

On the other hand, the first private pilot's license wasn't issued until April 6, 1927, so there's many apples to oranges in this comparison.
posted by straw at 4:27 PM on April 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

It takes most people more than 40 hours these days. I somehow doubt it took that much back when since the lessons that led to much of the training that is required these days had not yet been learned.

It was a much more dangerous activity back then..
posted by wierdo at 11:26 PM on April 30, 2018

It's a shame she just gave up flying like that, according to the article anyhow. I'd have loved to see what she could have done as aviation tech improved.
posted by Alensin at 2:00 PM on May 1, 2018