A three part series by Rob Stapleton
While other states enjoy the surging interest in sport aviation Alaskans wishing to obtain a Sport Pilot license will find that there are some big hurdles to overcome if you can even get one here.
“There are no new Sport Pilot instructors or pilots being made in Alaska today,” said Pete Marsh, a Federal Aviation Administration certified Sport Pilot Instructor. “Before the Sport Pilot rule passed this used to be the place to come, the Mecca for sport aviation right here in Chugiak.”
About Sport Pilot and Light Sport Aircraft
The Sport Pilot rule was passed in Sept. 2004 and offers an interested person the ability to obtain a license with a minimum of 20 hours of flight time.
That flight time requires dual, solo, cross country flights and preparation for a Practical Test (check ride).
Sport Pilots may also use a valid driver’s license in lieu of a Third Class medical, but can use an aviation class medical if they choose. An FAA Sport Pilot knowledge test must also be passed by the student pilot with a score of 70 percent or higher.
The medical self qualifying aspect of the Sport Pilot rule was and is a huge departure by the FAA of its flight medical standards. In the past many people who experienced medical complications were blocked from flying. To regain a medical after being “grounded” is a timely and sometimes expensive effort. After an illness or medical issue many pilots gave up flying.
This new Sport License allows a pilot who may have had medical issues but was not officially denied a medical to fly using the privileges of the Sport Pilot license.
Generally meaning, no night flights, no flights above 10,000 feet or 2,000 feet above the terrain if that terrain is above 10,000 feet (very possible in Alaska). Sport Pilots may only fly two place aircraft that have a certified gross weight of 1,320 pounds or less, no retractable landing gear (with the exception of some amphibious aircraft) or an in-flight adjustable propeller, the aircraft may only use a reciprocal engine.
More details about Sport Pilot restrictions and privileges can be found on the Experimental Aircraft Association website:http://www.sportpilot.org/learn/final_rule_synopsis.html
New types of aircraft and a big misunderstanding
The Sport Pilot Rule also allowed two new types of aircraft; weightshift, and powered parachute which could be used as Light Sport Aircraft by either Sport Pilots or licensed pilots who receive training in them and subsequently receive a log book endorsement by an FAA certified type qualified instructor.
Local Alaska officials with the Federal Aviation Administration misunderstand the issues facing a potential Sport Pilot as a lack of interest in the Sport Pilot licensure. This is not so according to several Sport Pilot instructors who are concerned about Sport Pilot safety.
Currently in Anchorage there is no way for an interested person wanting to learn to fly and achieve a Sport Pilot to do so. There are no FAA Designated Pilot Examiners, no flight schools that offer Sport Pilot flight programs.
This seems strange because according to the FAA Safety Team there are over 400 Certified Flight Instructors in the Anchorage area.
Currently there are three Sport Pilot Instructors in the Anchorage area but none of these have viable aircraft to use for instruction.
There is one instructor and one designated pilot examiner (an authorized instructor check pilot who gives flight testing) for weightshift in Fairbanks, both will only instruct in other people’s aircraft and will no longer offer their aircraft for instructional use.
At Merrill Field ‘Land and Sea Aviation’ has a Light Sport Piper, offers instruction but does not offer instruction to Sport Pilot licensure at this time.
The crux of the AlaskaSport Pilot issue-
The question of why and how this happened begs to be asked. Here is the crux of the situation.
The FAA disallowed former two place ultralights, sometimes referred to as microlights the ability to be used for instruction earlier this year.
These light sport aircraft were previously inspected, certified and registered by the FAA with a valid airworthiness certificates. The aircraft were then certified as Experimental Light Sport Aircraft or ELSAs.
This certification came with operating limitations that allowed for instruction but were limited for authorization until Jan. 31, 2010 when the ability would expire. New limitations were issued that prohibited instruction, or any compensation for hire.
The answer to the question is now obvious, none of the Experimental LSAs owners can legally charge for their aircraft’s use for instruction, or for any other commercial venture.
Since this deadline there are no weightshift or powered parachute instructors willing to fork out the money for a new aircraft.
The original reasoning, if you consider the FAA a reasoning entity was to allow these aircraft to be used for flight training and recurrent flight reviews until the Light Sport Aircraft manufacturing industry could get its aircraft certified by the General Aviation Manufacturing Association.
Sport flying today and in the past-
At this writing there is a list of LSA and Special Light Sport aircraft now available that range in price from $35,000 to $150,000.
In comparison ultralight weightshift and powered parachutes could be purchased for $10-20,000 dollars before the Sport Pilot rule. In fact, these ultralights were the fastest growing and most popular sector of general aviation in 2000.
Governed by Federal Aviation Regulation Part 103 you could fly without a pilot’s license, a medical, or a driver’s license. This was so popular that a flight school called Arctic Sparrow Aircraft produced hundreds of pilots making Birchwood Airport (PABV/BCV) the Mecca of weightshift ultralights. The school run by Mike Jacober became known worldwide and produced over 90 students a year at its apex in the early 2000s.
Jacober was killed, the school closed down and now there are only a handful of “trike” pilots and weightshift aircraft flying at Birchwood Airport or anywhere in Alaska for that matter.
LODA the solution--
The Experimental Aircraft Association, Aero Sports Connection, the U.S Ultralight Association saw the dangers of curtailing the training authorization on the ELSAs and negotiated an agreement with the FAA in mid 2009. Called a Letter of Deviation Authorization, (LODA) the authorization would allow qualified instructors with a valid training program to use their aircraft for flight training.
Officials with the FAA at the Light Sport, 610 Branch in Oklahoma have never issued the LODA to a single Sport Pilot Light Sport Instructor, or a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) in the U.S.
A recent call to the 610 Branch only produced an answer that “Nothing” was going on with the LODA that was said to be held up by the FAA’s legal department. Thus Sport Pilot CFIs have dilemma.
The bureaucracy is so deep and tangled within the FAA, that this issue has the EAA (Listen to an interview here) and ASC pleading with its members—millions—to write the FAA Administrator directly and plead with him to move ahead with the LODA before the administration creates an unsatisfactory safety condition.
Tomorrow Part Two: The safety danger, limitations and costs of Sport Pilot-
Rob Stapleton can be reached at: robstapleton@alaska.net
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