Part Three in a Triolgy: Sport Pilot stalled in Alaska over bureaucracy
By Rob Stapleton
Ten years ago here in Anchorage sport aviation was a popular pastime for hundreds of budding and experienced pilots—today the sport is all but dead in its popularity.
“We are having too much fun,” were the words of Mike Jacober the guru of weightshift instructors leading the way into flying ultralight aircraft at Birchwood Airport.
The exclamation caught on and was even used by the editor of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s magazine the Experimenter after flying with Jacober at the annual Oshkosh Fly-in.
In 2000 when the word that the Federal Aviation Administration was considering a license for ultralight pilots that would be called something like Sport Pilot there were mixed feelings in the sport community.
Many saw this as a way to finally legitimize ultralight flying activities which were mainly scoffed by the general aviation industry. Others were skeptical and saw this as the FAA—much like the camel—getting its nose under the tent that would eventually manipulate the industry to kill it.
Today it is a rare sight to see one of those same aircraft flying from Birchwood.
In less than ten years-
During the days of Arctic Sparrow Aircraft there was a club; The Ultralight Flyers of Alaska. This club had over 150 members, elected officers and attended Birchwood Airport Association and Department of Transportation Aviation Division meetings.
Of this club 84 owned and flew their aircraft in club organized Poker Runs, and participated in landing and bomb drop contests during a yearly Alaska Solstice celebration.
Sport Pilot instructor Pete Marsh reflects on those days at Birchwood.
“Sport Pilot has completely destroyed the camaraderie, the club went away, instructors quit instructing, and now if a student wants instruction or desires to get a Sport Pilot license they will have to fly outside to California or Arizona to get it,” Marsh exclaims. “And the sad thing is the guy or gal will come back to Birchwood and be flying all alone.”
Another powered parachute instructor hasn’t flown his ELSA since last winter and it is still on snow skis. A student who was receiving instruction from another SP Instructor in the Mat-Su Valley is looking for an instructor because his instructor sold the ELSA and no longer has anything to fly, and has not completed his instruction, or taken a practical test.
In less than 10 years the community has imploded but not because there is a lack of interest, but rather because it was designed to do so.
Taking a look at the FAR/AIM book of regulations Sport Pilot and Sport Pilot Instructors under Part 61 even the most experienced of flight instructors are baffled by the explanations.
Look at flight time in types, endorsements and even what it takes to instruct a Sport Pilot student and ask determine and answer and then call the local FAA Flight Standards District Office. You won’t find an answer there.
Insurance is also a deterrent-
Bob Mackey with Falcon Insurance told listeners on the most popular sport flying internet radio magazine called Ultraflight Radio, that Alaska ELSA and LSA owners of weightshift and powered parachutes would never get insurance coverage (http://www.ultraflightradio.com/impodcast/2009/10/20/ufr091020a.mp3).
And to further add to the list of nails-in-the-coffin for us here in Alaska, on Monday Sept. 20 the FAA’s Light Sport Division finally issued the LODA (letter of deviation authorization).
The LODA only allows Sport Pilot Instructors to apply for the authorization to instruct using their ELSA if they were instructing in the aircraft before the expiration (Jan. 31, 2010).
It also appears that any instruction can only be for good for flight reviews for Sport Pilots using aircraft under 500 pounds empty weight, that have maximum speed of 87 knots (Vh maximum speed with continuous power in level flight).
Under these circumstances only three or four aircraft in Alaska will be able to be used for instruction, if the FAA approves the instructor/owner’s application for the LODA.
The Proof-
The reality is in the numbers.
As of Sept. 2010 there are only 37 sport pilots in the state compared to 3,263 Private Pilots with 3,474 Sport Pilots nationally. Do the math that’s 1.1 percent of the total Private Pilots in Alaska, falling far under the FAA’s estimate for 2010 of an increase of 27 percent by 2020 from 2007 for Sport Pilots nationwide.
Another shocking reality is the mentality of the FAA officials who have worked hard to make this onerous and complicated. Take for example the comments of one official who says that the FAA doesn’t want the old junk ELSAs being passed around in the Sport Pilot instructional community, thus the reason for the restrictions in the LODA.
Doesn’t this reek of special interest control when federal employees carve regulations that require instructors to purchase newer, more expensive S-LSA, and LSA aircraft calling less than ten year old ultralights that transitioned after the Sport Pilot rule passed as Experimental Light Sport Aircraft--old junk?
Alaska instructors think so, and respond with the irony that a 60 year old standard category Piper J-3 Cub built with 1930’s technology can be used for instruction and flown by a Sport Pilot but newer high tech tested FAA certified Experimental LSA’s can’t.
The solution?-
As a bright spot on the horizon, Land and Sea Aviation at Merrill Field has just started offering Sport Pilot flight instruction in a Piper LSA, and have half a dozen students in their school. But even they are faced with who will be the examiner performing the student pilot’s practical test.
Every Sport Pilot Instructor in the weightshift and powered parachute categories that were polled for this story was no longer instructing. Many of their students are either getting instruction to become Private Pilots, or are selling their ELSA aircraft and going back to flying FAR Part 103 single seat aircraft.
Others, well they will fly illegally, no license, no instruction and we will likely only know about them after a tragedy reveals their identity.
Rob Stapleton may be reached at: robstapleton@alaska.net
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