Sport Pilots and 3rd Class Medicals, Listen Up!

[chris]

Wow, EAA and AOPA are going for it!

EAA and AOPA jointly announced on Saturday, September 24, at AOPA Summit that the associations would petition the FAA for an exemption allowing pilots who have completed required aeromedical awareness training to fly recreationally with a driver

[radfordc]

Well, Sport Pilots don't need to listen up. This change would allow Private Pilots and maybe Recreactional Pilots more priviledges than allowed under the SP rule. They could fly larger aircraft with a driver's license in lieu of a 3rd class medical.

[chris]

That would probably close to kill the sport pilot certification and probably not be great news for light sport manufacturers. But it will be extremely helpful for a lot of pilots...

[bhassel]

That would probably close to kill the sport pilot certification and probably not be great news for light sport manufacturers. But it will be extremely helpful for a lot of pilots...

I don't think this will kill the LSA market. It does open the options however, the LSA market has many things going for it besides the Dirvers License medical. Cost is a biggie here. I think that the LSA kit planes will still be desirable over the other models just because of cost. Sonex was popular before LSA and still is. In many ways it doesn't even match the cretieria for LSA (1350 lbs gross weight) however it is still a very popular aircraft.

Aircraft that meet or qualify for the LSA catagory are still some of the most affordable to fly.

Bob

[chris]

Bob, I agree with you mostly.

I meant that I think there would be fewer people training for sport pilot certification and choosing to train for a private instead regardless of whether they want to fly light sport or certified. I did not mean that the sport category of aircraft will be killed. I cannot think of any reason that taking away the medical for a private pilot certificate would be good for growth of the number of people obtaining sport pilot certificates.

Sure it will still be attractive for some because you can get it done in less time. I know that the lack of a medical isn

[bhassel]

True - all good points!

Bob

[fastj22]

This change will be HUGE for the RV crowd. Especially if they still allow endorsements for complex aircraft like the constant speed prop.
It will eat into the LSA market as now C150s and like certified aircarft really qualify for the same market of pilot.

I have my PPL but let my medical expire last month because I only fly LSA right now. Would be nice to be able to take out a C172 if I wanted to. I'm fully qualified to fly it, just need some doctor to give me a worthless physical to say I can right now.

[MichaelFarley56]

I agree with most of the points above. I don't think Sport Pilot will go away (right away) based solely on the fact that it takes less time to get your Sport Pilot vs. a Private ticket. However, Sport PIlot (assuming this goes through) will loose one of its huge advantages for getting new people into flying and I think most of the future students will go ahead and choose Private training for a more "complete" course of training.

I also think most of the LSA aircraft companies will be hoping this doesn't go through, because if it does there are a lot of Cessna 150/152s, 172s, 177s, Piper Warriors, Grumman Cheetah/Tigers, etc. out there that all cost much less than a new $120,000 LSA. Even if it is 30 years old if you can get an early 70's Cessna for $30K-$40K that makes aircraft ownership possible for a lot of people.

I do give EAA and AOPA credit for trying this. At this day in age we need to try and get more pilots in the air, and this could certainly help!

[Andy Walker]

I'm one of the few actual sport pilots out there. Since I'm planning to finish building my Sonex, I don't think this rule will affect me immediately. However, I could definitely see at some point training up to a recreational/private certificate (whatever the final rule ends up being) so that at some point I could pick up an older 172 or similar, so that when the wife and I want to travel we could carry a whole lot of baggage and/or our dogs. For now no change, and the Sonex should do everything I need. But I love that there are more options on the horizon.