Wings of the Cascades


	"We believe quality instruction is the key to aviation safety." Mary Schu Dominick President, Chief Pilot/Chief Instructor The Mission of Wings of the Cascades is “Changing lives through aviation.” The objective is to promote aviation safety by establishing individually tailored flight training programs for personal and professional aviation, available for purchase by domestic and international customers. “Wings of the Cascades began as a vision and the fulfillment of a purpose given for a life. The ingredients for success included passion for flying, a gift for teaching others, some great mentors, supporters, and co-workers and opportunities acted upon. Flying is a calculated risk achieved by good choices about the type of equipment you fly, and the training you receive. To some of us flight is the ultimate freedom, the way we “make order of our world by being off the ground.” It is a pure way to learn the good, bad, and ugly about ourselves, to capitalize on the good, and to change and compensate for the rest. Life is very precious. Make good choices about the equipment you use to leave the ground, and those who show you how….” Mary Schu Dominick, founder Wings of the Cascades Spirit Flight, Inc. Download Bulletin Article - April 2004 Download Cinema Ad - April 2004 Download Cinema Ad - February 2004 (gift certificate) Download Cinema Ad - December 2003 Download Bulletin Article - December 2003 Download Women In Business Article - December 2003 Download Women In Business Ad - December 2003 Download Bulletin Article - November 2003 Download Central Electric Ruralite Article - January 1998 Download Women In Business - November 1994 Wings of the Cascades, Spirit Flight, Inc. is an aviation training company with a primary location in Redmond, Oregon in the beautifully scenic high desert area of central Oregon. Mary Schu (now Mary Schu Dominick), the president and founder took her first flight at a Part 141 school in Oregon at the Portland Troutdale airport on the west side of the Cascades Mountains in 1975. She has been a professional pilot since 1976 and a flight instructor for nearly 30 years. She is an educator with a Masters Degree in Education from Western Oregon University, specializing in Learning Problems and holds an Oregon Teaching Certificate. She gave up teaching public school to pursue her passion of flying. She has completed additional post graduate work on her doctorate in Educational Policy and Management at the University of Oregon and has entwined the two gifts into a lifelong career that has touched the lives of thousands through teaching aviation. In the three decades of aviation, she has achieved a single and multi-engine Airline Transport Pilot certificate, type ratings in IA Jet 121, 1123, 1124 Jet Commander and Westwind aircraft, and Cessna CE500 Citations. As a corporate pilot, she has flown thousands of hours of single-pilot IFR in piston twins, and turbo prop airplanes around the USA and Canada. She was also a type-rated captain and crew member for several flight departments in Oregon, the Midwest, and California on corporate jets. Mary was Chief Pilot in charge of the transportation flight department for Kansas State University for four years. She supervised all maintenance and wrote the standard operating procedures for the flight department. She was an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner in Kansas for five years giving exams for private, commercial, instrument, certified flight instructor reissue, and add on including Instrument Instructor, and Multi-engine Instructor, and single and multi-engine Airline Transport Pilot Certificates. She also gave multi-engine flight examinations in the Beech 55/ 58 Baron, Cessna 310, and Piper Twin Comanche aircraft before moving to Oregon. She instructed at Flight Safety International at the Cessna Learning Center in Wichita, Kansas and taught the Instrument Multi-engine Refresher Courses in the piston twin and turbo prop simulators. She provided recurrent aircraft training for the Flight Safety Instructor Pilots in a Cessna 421. As an instructor she has CFIA, CFII, and MEI ratings. She has logged over 15,000 hours of flight time, much of it instructional over the past thirty years. As such, Mary instructs the instructors and has written a Training Course Outline for AFS 840. She was approved as one of 32 companies in the United States to provide Flight Instructor Refresher Clinics for certificate renewal around the country. She has presented the clinics for nearly 1000 instructors for the State of Arkansas, Montana Aeronautics Department, and the Aeronautics Department for the State of Oregon. She also provides the clinics at resort locations and on cruise ships. She was appointed by the FAA as an Airman Certification Representative able to renew all Flight Instructor certificates on location. She has been an Aviation Safety Counselor for fifteen years and has organized and presented several safety meetings per year that qualify for the FAA WINGS Pilot Proficiency Safety Program. She has presented over 50 ground school courses in the past twelve years for private and instrument training with a pass rate of 90 percent of all that take the knowledge test. Her pass rate among the hundreds of applicants she has recommended for certificates is over 94 percent. The Wings of the Cascades school pass rate is over 96.5 percent on the first attempt for applicants in the Part 141 program. Many of the instructors in the current and past training program have been students of Wings of the Cascades from the beginning of their flight training. Many have nearly completed their four year college online degrees and are acting as training pilots for the program. After spending several years operating from all the airports in central Oregon the first Wings of the Cascades office was opened as a Cessna Pilot Center on the Redmond Airport. The first airplane was picked up at the factory in Kansas by Mary and returned to Oregon in late February of 1999. Since then, five additional aircraft have been added, with three more on order. Mary attended her first Cessna Pilot Center Management Seminar in 1999 and has attended these two day seminars almost yearly since then, acting as a speaker at some of the seminars. In March of 2000, Mary was asked to participate in the Lancair training program and became one of two instructor pilots able to provide factory training in the Columbia 300 aircraft. She was employed as the recurrent training pilot for the Chief Pilot of Lancair, Sam Houston, until the end of 2003. She is also factory approved to instruct in the Columbia 350. She provides a yearly 16 hour FAA approved training course for the Lancair pilots through the Flight Instructor Refresher Clinic she presents in Bend, Oregon. February 28, 2001 brought final approval for the FAA 135 Air Carrier Certificate which allows Wings of the Cascades to provide charter flights and air taxi service in the United States. Paperwork has been submitted to the FAA and awaits final approval for a Basic Certificate which will add several more pilots to the certificate. The small initial office was outgrown and a new location found on the south side of the airport. A Laser Grade Testing Center for all FAA Knowledge Tests was added. In August of 2001, a 2 and 4 year Aviation College Degree Program through the Utah Valley State College distance learning program was added which allows students to attain a college degree on the internet and train in central Oregon with Wings of the Cascades for a career in aviation. This program was provided through the company’s association with the Pilot Career Foundation in Provo, Utah and the hope of a bridge program with Skywest Airlines for the pilots in the flight school program. In April 2003, the National Forest Service approved Wings of the Cascades to provide forest fire reconnaissance and air attack operations. On January 3, 2004 the final approval was received for the FAA Part 141 Flight School Certification, certificate W54S698J. Wings of the Cascades received approval for all primary courses - Private, Commercial and Instrument by 2005. Full financing with low interest student loans was added from sources including Sallie Mae. This provided necessary funding for students to obtain professional flight training with deferred loans. The Regional Jet Airline bridge program through Delta Connection Academy was added in 2004. It provides combined training with Wings of the Cascades and Delta Connection Academy of Florida for regional jet training and guaranteed interviews for regional jet pilot positions. The hiring rate into the regional airlines such as Skywest, American Eagle, ASA, ACA, and Chataqua is 97 percent from this program. In 2005, an affiliation with Embry Riddle University was added which allowed credit to be transferred to another four year institution, besides Utah Valley State College, providing additional educational opportunities for the students in the Wings of the Cascades program. Wings of the Cascades began as a vision and the fulfillment of a purpose given for a life. The company has grown from one person operating from the trunk of a car going from one airport to the next, to a school that has touched the lives of hundreds and hundreds of people who share the love of flight. The employee base has expanded and today the company is headquartered on the Redmond, Oregon airport. Programs have grown and more and more opportunities are available to those who seek them. Every day people come whose lives are changed, never to be the same through becoming a pilot. Redmond, Oregon (541) 548-4801 • Fax (541) 548-2776 • 777 SE Salmon • Redmond, OR 97756 Bend, Oregon (541) 385-9959 • (541) 548-2776 • PO Box 5713 • Bend, OR 97708 spiritflight@wingscascades.com 1-866-856-9464 (WING) Top of Page INTRO \| HOME \| REGIONAL JET PROGRAM \| WINGS CAREER PROGRAMS \| FINANCIAL AID \| ABOUT US \| CONTACT US INSTRUCTION - FLIGHT TRAINING \| INSTRUCTION - GROUND SCHOOL \| INSTRUCTION - CFI REFRESHER AIRCRAFT RENTAL RATES \| AIRCRAFT RENTAL POLICY \| AVIATION DEGREE - UVSC LASERGRADE TESTING \| CHARTER FLIGHTS \| SCENIC FLIGHTS \| RESOURCES \| GALLERY

"We believe quality instruction is the key
to aviation safety."

Mary Schu Dominick
President, Chief Pilot/Chief Instructor

The Mission of Wings of the Cascades is “Changing lives through aviation.” The objective is to promote aviation safety by establishing individually tailored flight training programs for personal and professional aviation, available for purchase by domestic and international customers.

“Wings of the Cascades began as a vision and the fulfillment of a purpose given for a life. The ingredients for success included passion for flying, a gift for teaching others, some great mentors, supporters, and co-workers and opportunities acted upon. Flying is a calculated risk achieved by good choices about the type of equipment you fly, and the training you receive. To some of us flight is the ultimate freedom, the way we “make order of our world by being off the ground.” It is a pure way to learn the good, bad, and ugly about ourselves, to capitalize on the good, and to change and compensate for the rest. Life is very precious. Make good choices about the equipment you use to leave the ground, and those who show you how….” Mary Schu Dominick, founder Wings of the Cascades Spirit Flight, Inc.

Download Bulletin Article - April 2004
Download Cinema Ad - April 2004
Download Cinema Ad - February 2004 (gift certificate)
Download Cinema Ad - December 2003
Download Bulletin Article - December 2003
Download Women In Business Article - December 2003
Download Women In Business Ad - December 2003
Download Bulletin Article - November 2003
Download Central Electric Ruralite Article - January 1998
Download Women In Business - November 1994

Wings of the Cascades, Spirit Flight, Inc. is an aviation training company with a primary location in Redmond, Oregon in the beautifully scenic high desert area of central Oregon. Mary Schu (now Mary Schu Dominick), the president and founder took her first flight at a Part 141 school in Oregon at the Portland Troutdale airport on the west side of the Cascades Mountains in 1975. She has been a professional pilot since 1976 and a flight instructor for nearly 30 years.

She is an educator with a Masters Degree in Education from Western Oregon University, specializing in Learning Problems and holds an Oregon Teaching Certificate. She gave up teaching public school to pursue her passion of flying. She has completed additional post graduate work on her doctorate in Educational Policy and Management at the University of Oregon and has entwined the two gifts into a lifelong career that has touched the lives of thousands through teaching aviation.

In the three decades of aviation, she has achieved a single and multi-engine Airline Transport Pilot certificate, type ratings in IA Jet 121, 1123, 1124 Jet Commander and Westwind aircraft, and Cessna CE500 Citations. As a corporate pilot, she has flown thousands of hours of single-pilot IFR in piston twins, and turbo prop airplanes around the USA and Canada. She was also a type-rated captain and crew member for several flight departments in Oregon, the Midwest, and California on corporate jets.

Mary was Chief Pilot in charge of the transportation flight department for Kansas State University for four years. She supervised all maintenance and wrote the standard operating procedures for the flight department. She was an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner in Kansas for five years giving exams for private, commercial, instrument, certified flight instructor reissue, and add on including Instrument Instructor, and Multi-engine Instructor, and single and multi-engine Airline Transport Pilot Certificates. She also gave multi-engine flight examinations in the Beech 55/ 58 Baron, Cessna 310, and Piper Twin Comanche aircraft before moving to Oregon. She instructed at Flight Safety International at the Cessna Learning Center in Wichita, Kansas and taught the Instrument Multi-engine Refresher Courses in the piston twin and turbo prop simulators. She provided recurrent aircraft training for the Flight Safety Instructor Pilots in a Cessna 421.

As an instructor she has CFIA, CFII, and MEI ratings. She has logged over 15,000 hours of flight time, much of it instructional over the past thirty years. As such, Mary instructs the instructors and has written a Training Course Outline for AFS 840. She was approved as one of 32 companies in the United States to provide Flight Instructor Refresher Clinics for certificate renewal around the country. She has presented the clinics for nearly 1000 instructors for the State of Arkansas, Montana Aeronautics Department, and the Aeronautics Department for the State of Oregon. She also provides the clinics at resort locations and on cruise ships. She was appointed by the FAA as an Airman Certification Representative able to renew all Flight Instructor certificates on location. She has been an Aviation Safety Counselor for fifteen years and has organized and presented several safety meetings per year that qualify for the FAA WINGS Pilot Proficiency Safety Program. She has presented over 50 ground school courses in the past twelve years for private and instrument training with a pass rate of 90 percent of all that take the knowledge test. Her pass rate among the hundreds of applicants she has recommended for certificates is over 94 percent.

The Wings of the Cascades school pass rate is over 96.5 percent on the first attempt for applicants in the Part 141 program. Many of the instructors in the current and past training program have been students of Wings of the Cascades from the beginning of their flight training. Many have nearly completed their four year college online degrees and are acting as training pilots for the program.

After spending several years operating from all the airports in central Oregon the first Wings of the Cascades office was opened as a Cessna Pilot Center on the Redmond Airport. The first airplane was picked up at the factory in Kansas by Mary and returned to Oregon in late February of 1999. Since then, five additional aircraft have been added, with three more on order. Mary attended her first Cessna Pilot Center Management Seminar in 1999 and has attended these two day seminars almost yearly since then, acting as a speaker at some of the seminars.

In March of 2000, Mary was asked to participate in the Lancair training program and became one of two instructor pilots able to provide factory training in the Columbia 300 aircraft. She was employed as the recurrent training pilot for the Chief Pilot of Lancair, Sam Houston, until the end of 2003. She is also factory approved to instruct in the Columbia 350. She provides a yearly 16 hour FAA approved training course for the Lancair pilots through the Flight Instructor Refresher Clinic she presents in Bend, Oregon.

February 28, 2001 brought final approval for the FAA 135 Air Carrier Certificate which allows Wings of the Cascades to provide charter flights and air taxi service in the United States. Paperwork has been submitted to the FAA and awaits final approval for a Basic Certificate which will add several more pilots to the certificate.

The small initial office was outgrown and a new location found on the south side of the airport. A Laser Grade Testing Center for all FAA Knowledge Tests was added. In August of 2001, a 2 and 4 year Aviation College Degree Program through the Utah Valley State College distance learning program was added which allows students to attain a college degree on the internet and train in central Oregon with Wings of the Cascades for a career in aviation. This program was provided through the company’s association with the Pilot Career Foundation in Provo, Utah and the hope of a bridge program with Skywest Airlines for the pilots in the flight school program.

In April 2003, the National Forest Service approved Wings of the Cascades to provide forest fire reconnaissance and air attack operations. On January 3, 2004 the final approval was received for the FAA Part 141 Flight School Certification, certificate W54S698J. Wings of the Cascades received approval for all primary courses - Private, Commercial and Instrument by 2005.

Full financing with low interest student loans was added from sources including Sallie Mae. This provided necessary funding for students to obtain professional flight training with deferred loans.

The Regional Jet Airline bridge program through Delta Connection Academy was added in 2004. It provides combined training with Wings of the Cascades and Delta Connection Academy of Florida for regional jet training and guaranteed interviews for regional jet pilot positions. The hiring rate into the regional airlines such as Skywest, American Eagle, ASA, ACA, and Chataqua is 97 percent from this program.

In 2005, an affiliation with Embry Riddle University was added which allowed credit to be transferred to another four year institution, besides Utah Valley State College, providing additional educational opportunities for the students in the Wings of the Cascades program.

Wings of the Cascades began as a vision and the fulfillment of a purpose given for a life. The company has grown from one person operating from the trunk of a car going from one airport to the next, to a school that has touched the lives of hundreds and hundreds of people who share the love of flight. The employee base has expanded and today the company is headquartered on the Redmond, Oregon airport. Programs have grown and more and more opportunities are available to those who seek them. Every day people come whose lives are changed, never to be the same through becoming a pilot.