Pilot Training Resources

Just about a yeart or so ago, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) passed a new set of rules creating a new category of airplane, and they call it light sport aircraft (lsa), and a new rating called the sport pilot license. The idea was to make flying less expensive and more easily attainable. One way they accomplished this was to eliminate the need for an FAA medical, and as long as you have a valid driver’s license, you are good to go under most circumstances. Obviously, there are provisions that prevent pilots who lost their medical for valid reasons from flying as a sport pilot.

The first question that comes to many people’s minds is, “Are these real airplanes?”. The answer is, “absolutely!”. Liberty Aircraft makes a model known as the XL2, which has a composite fuselage, cruises up to 132 knots and employs a FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) fuel management system. There’s even a aLSA called the Symphone 160, a two-place airplane that has the all-glass panel Avidyne Entegra glass cockpit system. These are very much real airplanes.

The light sport aircraft fly in a restricted class that limit their airspeed, number of seats, etc. That is why the rules allow for a sport pilot license to be earned in about half the time of a private pilot license. I read an article in Plane and Pilot magazine about how there are schools popping up all over the country touting that you can earn one of these sport pilot licenses in just two weeks. I read about someone that earned a license in just eight days! I liken that type of experience to cramming for a final exam. If you don’t get out there in the real world and immediately begin building on the knowledge base you crammed into your head, you’re going to quickly begin to lose the information.

I would like to think that many of these new sport pilots are going to buy a light sport aircraft. The planes run anywhere from $35,000 to over $100,000 and at the hundred grand level, they are almost “real” airplanes; i.e. non-light sport aircraft.

Whether it takes one week or one month to earn a sport pilot certificate, the thing I like to see is that this new class of flying is bringing new blood into the aviation community. Those who were hesitant about committing the time and funds to get a private pilot license have now found an alternative with light sport aircraft and the new sport pilot’s license. Plush, everything you learn, and all the hours you log to become a sport pilot in a light sport aircraft can later be applied to obtain a private pilot’s license. This would have been great fo rme when I was training almost thirty years ago. I can’t tell you how often I wished that I could take my friends flying when I was a student pilot. With the sport pilot’s license offered at basically the half-way point of the private pilot training, I would have been able to do just that. I look forward to getting involved with light sport aircraft despite the fact that I hold a commerical pilot’s certificate and have over 6,000 hours of flight time. When you love flying, it doesn’t matter what you are flying.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 1:49 pm and is filed under Light Sport Aircraft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.