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FAA Approves Sport Pilot License
"Light-Sport airplanes will be limited in size and power: maximum weight 1,320 pounds, maximum two seats, maximum airspeed 120 knots, single non-turbine engine, fixed landing gear. If it's a Light-Sport, it should be one of the easiest planes to fly."
This has the potential to dramatically increase the number of people owning and flying planes. Not only is it easier for a person to become a Sport Pilot, it is easier and cheaper for a company to sell a Light-Sport airplane. (For years, people have been building "kit" airplanes just so they will fall under the looser "homebuilt" rules. Now, there will be no need to build a plane unless you actually want to do so.) Several airplane companies have promised to produce Light-Sport planes that will cost no more than a luxury car."
Another good overview can be found at http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID= 65261609-3814-42c0-979d-a77f9b8c10f8&
This new category bridges the gap between the relatively uncontrolled (US) ultralights and the standard airplane. If I understand correctly (correct me If I'm wrong), it may allow European 'ultralights' (which can be larger than their US cousins) to be flown in the US without meeting all the standard airplane rules.
Why do we need licenses at all for light sport planes? There have been light sport planes on the market for years.
Until now, light sport plane pilots were fully licensed. The new license is easier to obtain, meaning that "casual" pilots won't need to demonstrate that they're medically capable of flying a passenger- or commercial-aircraft.
This is where the serious fun begins.
The FAA is not replacing the Ultralight rules with this; single seat Ultralights under 550 pounds are still OK to fly under the existing rules. This allows use of TWO seat 'ultralight trainers', which were not really legal under the Ultralight rules, except for flight training.
Many people were flying these as if they were in the Ultralight category when they were really not.
Yes, Ultralights were limited to 55 mph, 5 gallons of fuel, 550 pounds weight, and a single seat. The Light Sport Class allows very light two seat airplanes to be flown under limited conditions with relaxed rules.
The good news is that now instead of having to pay $25000 for a two seat metal Cessna you might be able to buy a 1942 Taylorcraft for $10,000 and then actually afford to keep it airborne.
The light sport planes are allowed to weigh up to about 1,100 pounds.
Not even close.
Ultralight limited to 55 mph vs this class at 120
Ultralight limited to 254 lbs dry weight vs this class at over 1200 lbs
Ultralights are pretty much toy looking, whereas these are "real" small aircraft.
The difference in size and performance is roughly the same ratio as Yugo vs Ford Exploder.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
These are the standard class aircraft that are considered to be sport pilot legal.
If you're in a position where you can seriously kill a bunch of people, you need to be regulated.
Parent did not argue against all regulations, but merely indicated that perhaps they should be revised to allow for greater deviations from what was considered "normal" when the regulations were developed, based on our further understanding of the human body.
That's why they don't offer members of the general public to fly commercial jets.
And parent specifically indicated that they felt these regulations were proper for commercial jets: "I accept being picky about choosing people to fly +400 people airliners, but please leave people alone who want to have some fun in a tiny 152."
Simply not true - in fact I attended a talk by one of the investigators who was contracted by the NTSB.
John was flying a LongEZ - which is certainly not in the light sport plane class. It is a pretty spiffy plane in the high performance general aviation class (though homebuilt).
The initial cause of failure was running one tank dry at low altitude (bad).
The tank selector valve is normally controlled by a pushrod, however that was disconnected in John's plane. Instead he had vice grips cliped to the valve which was now unreachable in flight (bad).
John apparently disconnected his seat belt/harness so he could reach the fuel selector by diving over the back seat (bad).
Sudden shift to an aft CG (bad).
Steep decent into water without a seat belt (bad). (At this point the plane was still perfectly okay, no structural failures occured until impact.)
When John ran out of gas at low altitude over water by a beach, he should have ditched. Ditching is normally not the best choice for emergency landings, but this particular design floats and does not tend to flip over. At low altitude he should not have tried to fix all his mistakes, he should just land the plane.
I've flown in a number of LongEZs and they are great planes. Designed sold/by Burt Rutan (of Spaceship One/Voyager fame).
The parent poster knows not of what he speaks.
If you are curious about homebuilt aircraft (not light sport aircraft) check out my builders log: http://www.geeksville.com/plane