Sport Pilot stalled in Alaska over bureaucracy Part-Two
By Rob Stapleton
One of the biggest complaints by the Federal Aviation Administration about Sport Pilot this year has been about its accident rate.
In fact the FAA has asked the Experimental Aircraft Association nationwide to step up the awareness on homebuilt aircraft accidents. Experimental Light Sport Aircraft are included in this category but not the largest concern to federal regulators.
According to officials inside the FAA the largest area of concern are the Private or certificated pilots who are used to flying heavier aircraft that are transitioning down to Special Light Sport aircraft.
“What we are concerned about are those pilots with lots of time as PIC (pilot in command) who are transitioning to low mass, low speed aircraft. They need just as much instruction as those wanting to fly more complex aircraft,” said Edsel Ford, with the FAA’s Light Sport Aviation Branch. “In fact these high time pilots who are use to high speed, more powerful aircraft are a disaster waiting to happen.”
According to a recent article in Flying Magazine the emerging picture of LSA safety is rather dubious.
“As of late spring 2008, there had been 39 fatal LSA accidents (with 49 total fatalities). Of those fatals, 12 were in S-LSAs, meaning that nearly one out of every 100 S-LSAs has been involved in a fatal accident. Of those 39 total fatal wrecks (E-LSA and S-LSA combined), 54 percent were due to loss of control. Ten percent were due to structural failure.”
FAA officials say that the total fatalities in the Light Sport Category have climbed to 66 at in 2010. What local flight instructors are concerned about are the habits of pilots flying Light Sport aircraft.
“If there are no Light Sport experienced flight instructors flying with them or watching over them by giving flight reviews and safety procedures accidents will happen,” said Sport Pilot CFIPete Marsh.
Looking at the report from the FAA 54 percent of the accidents was from loss of control, this is a concern by Sport Pilot CFIs and Standard Category CFIs and the FAA.
According to Ford the FAA Safety Team is currently examining the causes of these types of accidents and how to counter it. Some instructors call this a no brainer, the pilot gets behind the power curve and looses control of their aircraft.
The result of this formula spirals into what Alaskan sport flying enthusiasts are dealing with today.
Insurance companies will not insure tail wheel, weightshift or powered parachute Light Sport aircraft based in Alaska, banks won’t loan money for newer S-LSA or LSA aircraft with no insurance, pilots can’t get flight reviews because the instructors can’t use their aircraft or can’t or won’t afford a newer LSA.
“Here in Alaska we can’t get insurance, which equates to we can’t get a loan, which means I have to come up with $50,000 in cash,” said Marsh. “Not even rich people have $50,000 liquid in cash. The reality is no one ever capitalizes their own business they borrow money to start a business. We can’t get a loan because of an arbitrary insurance industry’s demand to make money.”
To counter the lack of an authorization to instruct in ELSA aircraft some instructors are now charging $150 an hour for their time, but not for the aircraft.
One of the other eradicating factors of sport flying in Alaska is the lack of community. Marsh says that the FAA is not supporting the community and its lack of effort to continue to communicate with Sport Pilot CFIs and Sport Pilots.
“What this has done is drive Alaskans to fly outside to get their training and licenses, they then comeback to Alaska with their Sport Pilot license and fly by themselves,” said Marsh. “One of the reasons that flying ultralights was so popular in the past was that there was a community, the older more experienced pilots looked after the newer pilots and this created a camaraderie that attracted more people to the sport. Today that is no longer the case.”
FAA officials continually stress that the Sport Pilot industry is supposed to be self supporting but in reality, sport flying was better supported, and policed by itself when pilots were flying under Part 103 as ultralights.
Next Part Three in the series: The death of an aviation activity
Rob Stapleton can be reached at: robstapleton@alaska.net
Comments