Sport Pilot

[Dariuszpl]

Hello to all! I'm trying to find out if there are any scubaboarders sport pilots / instructors in Se WI area? Always wanted to learn to fly and have been itching more than usually lately.
Thanks

 

[cerich]

Hello to all! I'm trying to find out if there are any scubaboarders sport pilots / instructors in Se WI area? Always wanted to learn to fly and have been itching more than usually lately.
Thanks

You may get lucky, there aren't that many Sport Pilot instructors at all yet, and less places that have LSA aircraft to train in. I would first locate a Sport Pilot training facility in your area,. Contact the EAA at www.eaa.org, they are in your neck of the woods anyway.

Then you will find quite a few of us on here with pilot license, not many sport pilots per say but lots of us who mostly fly that way (excect normally in aircraft too big to be LSA, but speed and weather wise the flying in is the same )

I'm actually craving to fly some of the new LSA's!

Best,

Chris

 

[Bill51]

Finding an LSA rental is still pretty tough and finding good instructors for a Sport Pilot’s license is even tougher right now and our local FAA FSDO is working with AOPA and EAA to try and fix some of the problems. Two problems right now are that most planes that meet sport pilot requirements are tail draggers and there’s a real screw up in the instructor insurance for teaching sport pilots right now. With well over 500 hours in tail draggers from small to large my insurance would double to teach in an LSA over a regular plane and many companies won’t write more than a million dollar policy for sport plane instruction. A young instructor building hours might not mind having his insurance coverage limited, but he probably has little to no tail dragger time – and older instructors with plenty of time won’t risk teaching without more insurance. A real catch 22 right now.

I’d love to find an old Luscombe to do Sport Pilot, tail dragger, and limited aerobatic training with.

You can do a search from the EAA Sport Pilot website for instructors, but so far they only have about 400 listed nationwide and only a small portion of those have an aircraft to rent.

http://www.sportpilot.org/index.html

 

[cerich]

Finding an LSA rental is still pretty tough and finding good instructors for a Sport Pilot’s license is even tougher right now and our local FAA FSDO is working with AOPA and EAA to try and fix some of the problems. Two problems right now are that most planes that meet sport pilot requirements are tail draggers and there’s a real screw up in the instructor insurance for teaching sport pilots right now. With well over 500 hours in tail draggers from small to large my insurance would double to teach in an LSA over a regular plane and many companies won’t write more than a million dollar policy for sport plane instruction. A young instructor building hours might not mind having his insurance coverage limited, but he probably has little to no tail dragger time – and older instructors with plenty of time won’t risk teaching without more insurance. A real catch 22 right now.

I’d love to find an old Luscombe to do Sport Pilot, tail dragger, and limited aerobatic training with.

You can do a search from the EAA Sport Pilot website for instructors, but so far they only have about 400 listed nationwide and only a small portion of those have an aircraft to rent.

http://www.sportpilot.org/index.html

That is so funny! A local instructor has a nice Cub, he can do a tailwheel endorsement in the cub for $500 bucks to a Private Pilot, he can't do one for a sport pilot, nor a Private with a expired medical that wants to fly as a sport pilot. Put in place by his insurance company. BTW h a retired Delta Pilot with thousand of hours including thousands in tail draggers.

 

[Codyjp]

I am going to ask... Are you elligible for a 3rd class medical? If you are i would recomend getting your conventional PPL they you will still be able to LSA.

If you need to stick to the LSA then EAA is your source of info. They were the ones who were on the forefront of this new certificate.

Blue skies,

-Cody

 

[ShakaZulu]

Starting ground school for my PPL in March.......yeah!!! Any suggestions on how soon during this I should start flight school?

Any ideas on how to cut costs?

 

[cerich]

I am going to ask... Are you elligible for a 3rd class medical? If you are i would recomend getting your conventional PPL they you will still be able to LSA.

If you need to stick to the LSA then EAA is your source of info. They were the ones who were on the forefront of this new certificate.

Blue skies,

-Cody

Actually recreational Pilot may be the way to go. You don't do night and the training is less but get to fly 4 seaters with only two persons in them and can still degrade to a Sport Pilot if you let the medical lapse.

If the medical is an issue, the other possibility is a Glider License with a motor endorsement. No medical involved/required. It's even better than Sport Pilot/LSA because you can actually fly night or if you have an instrument rating you can fy instrument wihout a medical! There are quite a few folks that fly motor gliders and never turn the engine off....

I know Sporty's offer Motor Glider Instruction, it will also be hard to find.

 

[Bill51]

That is so funny! A local instructor has a nice Cub, he can do a tailwheel endorsement in the cub for $500 bucks to a Private Pilot, he can't do one for a sport pilot, nor a Private with a expired medical that wants to fly as a sport pilot. Put in place by his insurance company. BTW h a retired Delta Pilot with thousand of hours including thousands in tail draggers.

One of the underwriters we talked to admitted that they’re afraid a sport pilot is going to go out and fly at night or into some weather that he hasn’t been trained in despite the illegality of that and then his family will try to sue the instructor for not giving the same level of instruction in recovery from unusual attitudes, basic instrument awareness, and night flying that a private would have gotten. There was also talk of not enough weather training which could lead to a sport pilot not returning to terra firma before some weather rolled in on them.

While the General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1992 did reduce the frivolous lawsuits against manufactures there may now be a trend to try suing the instructor to make up for not being able to sue the builders as easily. This could really come into play with many of the planes being used for Sport Pilot being older planes that have lived past their liability limits.

It would be funny if not so sad that over 50% of aviation insurance costs are for lawyers fighting frivolous or bogus claims rather than paying off for a legitimate claim.

 

[Dariuszpl]

Ok guys what's the difference between private pilot and sport pilot? and would I be able to fly at night with either one license?

 

[Bill51]

Starting ground school for my PPL in March.......yeah!!! Any suggestions on how soon during this I should start flight school?

Any ideas on how to cut costs?

Surprisingly the best way to save money that has worked for many I know is to buy a plane. Pick up an older 150 or such for about $15K, get your license in a hurry, and sell it for what you paid for it or more in a few months. That may not work if you want to go through a full flight school program where they want you to use their planes since that’s how they make a lot of their money, but if you just want to find a good independent instructor it’s a great way to go. You get to know one airplane well instead of spending half the lesson finding out how a different plane flies, it’s always ready to go when you are so you keep flying without long time lapses, you have an incentive to fly as often as possible, and you know what is working and don’t get surprised by canceled lessons when one of the planes is in for maintenance.

I think getting one of William Kershner’s books and reading it right away is the best place and time to start.