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07/29/05 - WONDERING WHAT LIGHT SPORT CAN DO FOR YOU? LOTS!
What does the light-sport aircraft (LSA) designation offer pilots that they can’t get from certificated aircraft?
If your answer is "warmed over Cub replicas," give yourself a D-minus for partial credit.
How about an IFR-legal composite aircraft with a glass panel and two-axis autopilot, with a 113-knot cruise speed (at 75 percent power) and the fuel burn of a C-152?
How about an aluminum-hull amphibian with a 100-knot cruise, +6/-4g load limits, and that same miserly fuel burn?
How about a floatplane with 550 pounds of useful load, or 700 pounds in the landplane version?
How about a bevy of trainers, excellent photography platforms and, yes, Cub replicas?
Some 13 LSA-certificated planes are now offered for sale (and every one of them is sold out through the end of the year), and many other designs expect LSA certification in the near future.
The LSA aircraft category is expanding the variety and versatility of aircraft design, in an absolutely revolutionary way.
This may seem counterintuitive, given the many party-pooper restrictions on the category: maximum 120 knots in level flight, maximum stall speed of 45 knots, no constant-speed prop, no third seat, no engine without pistons, fixed gear (except for seaplanes), and maximum gross weight of 1,320 pounds (100 pounds higher for seaplanes).
But look beyond the weight, power, and speed restrictions: LSA has thrown off the yoke of many of the FAA’s most antiquated regulations. No vacuum pumps, no TSO requirement for instruments, no this-is-how-they-did-it-in-the-1930s. A consensus-derived standard, developed by the industry itself under the auspices of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) governs LSA aircraft.
The restrictions mean that all LSA planes have similar cruise speed and endurance, so you won’t see LSA aircraft filling the mission profile of, say, a Piper Aerostar. But within that limitation, the aircraft have great capabilities.
And both the aircraft and the certification will be more attractive to beginning pilots:
"A brand-new aircraft has much more marketing appeal for the flight training market," said Ron Wagner of EAA’s Member/Chapter Relations. "And we believe the sport pilot rule will lower the dropout rate in flight training.
"Right now, there is a huge dropout rate after soloing. With the sport pilot certificate, pilots can share flying while continuing their training.
"The sport pilot certificate lowers that first step, and makes it more affordable. This is a growth opportunity the likes of which we haven’t seen since the end of World War II."
LSA aircraft are not magically cheap. They range from a low between $40,000 and $45,000 to a high between $90,000 and $95,000, and the glass-panel IFR example is $130,000. The emerging picture of rental rates is that FBOs will charge as much for LSAs as they charge for (much) older Cessna trainers. But you won’t have to explain to your significant other why the plane has duct tape-enhanced upholstery, "Inoperable" stickers on half the radios, or that bizarre shade of orange throughout the interior.
The IFR plane mentioned earlier is the Italian Tecnam Echo Super. A basic VFR version is $77,900. Of course, it can’t be used as an IFR platform unless the pilot has the appropriate qualifications. But the example on display here at AirVenture is both IFR-legal and sport pilot legal, with nary a vacuum pump in sight. It might even get certified for intentional spins, which would help make it a trainer of choice for the next generation.
The hull amphibian hails from the Czech Republic’s Czech Aircraft Works. Called the Mermaid, it has a ballistic parachute, disassembles easily for trailering and is priced in the 80s. The workmanship is superb, with the rivets lined up with great precision, and no oil-canning visible anywhere on the surface.
Just Aircraft’s Highlander, which is pending LSA certification, converts from nosewheel to tailwheel in an hour. The wings fold in about two minutes, and there is no need to unhook control cables, wires, or the pitot-static system. The price will be about $65,000 on wheels and $75,000 on floats.
One low-wing LSA plane on display, the Kappa, has a feature that will make Mooney mechanics and others who have learned to loathe diving behind instrument panels green with envy. The control panel shroud is held in place with Velcro and bungee cords. It can be removed in seconds, giving excellent access for service.
People who still cling to the (mistaken) belief that a good airplane could be sold as cheaply as a good car will gripe that LSA planes aren’t the magic bullet they’d hoped for. The rest of us, however, understand that we are seeing rapid progress in the making.
What don’t sport pilots learn?
Pilots who came up through the traditional private/commercial/ATP ranks and heard about this new certificate with only a 20-hour training requirement may ask, what did they cut out of the training to make it so quick?
Less than you think.
"The easy answer is that we eliminated night training and flying solely by reference to instruments," said Mark Aldridge, an FAA Aviation Safety Inspector (ASI) for Operations.
To pass a sport pilot checkride, you have to demonstrate proficiency in power-off stalls, power-on stalls, slow flight, turns around a point, S-turns along a road, flying a rectangular course, short- and soft-field takeoffs and landings, slips and go-arounds. In short, the airmanship is all still there.
But the things a sport pilot can’t do (or, in some cases, can do only with additional endorsements) add up to a lot of training time not needed.
You can’t fly in Class B, C, or D airspace without training and endorsement. (The requirements are stricter than they are for a private pilot; you have to fly in the Class B airspace in your training to get the endorsement.)
You can’t fly an aircraft with a full-power cruise speed greater than 87 knots without training and an endorsement.
You can’t ever fly above 10,000 feet or outside the United States. You can only take one passenger, and that can’t be for compensation.
The additional endorsements mean that this is a certificate that comes in layers. "We are piling up additional training requirements through an endorsement process," Aldridge said.
But how many training hours will most applicants take to get the sport pilot certificate? It’s too early to tell.
To date, most pilots who have passed the sport pilot checkride have been ultralight pilots who bypassed the training hours requirement by presenting letters attesting to their ultralight proficiency and training. These letters can come from any of three ultralight organizations. These applications don’t even mention hours flown.
One huge advantage of the sport pilot certificate is the option of being your own mechanic. You get an experimental light-sport aircraft, either by building one from plans or a kit, or by using paperwork to convert your factory built plane into an experimental category plane. You take a 16-hour FAA-accepted course, and you can repair your own aircraft. |
