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FAA Approves Sport Pilot License

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the flying-buggies-at-any-rate dept.

steveha writes "The FAA has just approved regulations creating a new class of pilot's license. (FAA press release here). The Sport Pilot license allows you to fly Light-Sport planes. It is much, much easier to get than a normal pilot's license; for example, you don't need to get a medical exam, and the training requirements are minimal." Read this overview, as well as some more details below.

"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."

7 of 520 comments (clear)

  1. Re:In USSR^WUSA by mrmagos · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Terrorists fly planes, not you
    Nice try, but I think what you mean was:
    In Soviet Russia, Sport-planes fly YOU!

    --
    Never start vast projects with half-vast ideas.
  2. Re:Good news by LemonYellow · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    > Hell, a handful of coins would kill people from a few thounsand feet up.

    Oh yeah? What's the terminal velocity of a coin?

  3. Re:Hope Europe takes notice by MetaMarty · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You cannot get stoned from a modern anti depressant (SSRI). They regulate the serotonine levels in the brain. They make a person more emotionally stable. It's drugs and alcohol that are dangerous, not well known regulated medication.

  4. Re:Hope Europe takes notice by dave420 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    alcohol and well-known medications are all drugs... they can all affect people for the worse. That's why they're called drugs, not candy.

  5. Re:In USSR^WUSA by akaiONE · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    In Soviet Russia noone can afford a Sport-plane, hence the ^WUSA-part :-)

    But then again, you are probably much more funny than me.

    --

    "-Who said sit down?!"
    -- S. Ballmer @ MSDC 2003.

  6. Re:Hope Europe takes notice by NetMasta10bt · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    Well candy can make people affect people for the worse. Especially small children. I don't know about you but seeing those little hellions running around with a roll of those compressed sugar wafers (Smarties), and a Venti Mocha Frappacino(tm) scares the bejesus outta me!!

  7. Re:Great for Terrorists... by HBPiper · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I suppose I could post this? But it would almost certainly be modded offtopic. ;-)

    --
    "I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating. And in fourteen days, I had lost exactly two weeks. Joe E. Lewis