The only problem with 141 is that most of the time you have to buy tons of books and follow a strict curriculum. If you get stuck in an area under 141, you have to stay put until you tackle the problem. This means if you have trouble with holding patterns, you have to keep doing them until you get it right then the instructor can put a check next to that and move on to the next step. I thought about 141 just because the mins were lower but trust me, 61 training is much better. If you get stuck in an area under 61, you can always come back to it later. 40 hrs goes by in a flash if you fly everyday. If you push it, you can get all the way to your comm/me by the end of the summer. My advice before you start is do some practice approaches on FS2004: VOR's, NDB's, ILS, LDA, DME, ARCS, etc etc etc....The principle of flying instruments in FS2004 is the same as the real deal only you dont get to talk to ATC the same way. I learned a great deal about instrument flying on FS5 back in 1995. My dad taught me almost everything I know about flying by instruments just on the FS5. I transferred all those skills to the cessna and voila! The only difference was I can actually reach out and turn the knob instead of having to use the mouse and keyboard. Gyro drift, partial panel and few other things too.... Best of luck with the rating!