Sport Pilot Flight Training Information

One of the hardest parts about understanding how Sport Pilot works, and if the US Airmen Certification is right for you, is by doing some background research. Sport Pilot is really the most diverse Airmen Certification that there is. Several factors should come into play in your final decision and making a checklist of your needs and goals (short and long term) in aviation should probably be your fist step. As you may or may not know, a checklist serves as a pilot’s right hand in most of what they do in regards to flying!

Something that you should always keep in mind when researching and contemplating the Sport Pilot Rule and Light Sport Aircraft is that you need to keep your apples in your apple basket and your oranges in your orange basket. That may seem like an odd thing to say, but because the categories are so diverse it is easy to misinterpret the information that you will come across in your research. Understanding the terminology and how it applies to the different endorsements and the different categories of Light Sport Aircraft can be very confusing. Keep in mind the mission … simple aircraft for a simple mission!

Your personal checklist may look like this:

What are my flying goals and desires?

Do I have a restricted budget in learning HOW to fly? Under $5,000 / Under 10,000?
Do I want to move up into standard category aircraft in the future?
Am I going to fly cross country or am I going to just punch clouds in the sky around my local airfield?
Do I want to take my friends and family flying with me?
Will they go?
Am I going to RENT or BUY my own airplane?
What’s my yearly budget for the aircraft?
Do I need that airplane to be movable by ground transportation?
Do I have medical issues that will prevent me from moving up to a Private Pilot Certification?
Am I going to want/need to fly at night?
Am I going to use my Sport Pilot certificate for business transportation?
Am a currently a certificated pilot who has some medical concerns that may prevent me from passing my next medical?
Have I been denied a FAA medical in the past?

Here are a few of the best links to gather your information:

www.faa.gov – This is the link to the Federal Aviation Administration’s website. The Light Sport Branch (AFS-610) is the Sport Pilot/Light Sport Aircraft regulatory division. Do a search for AFS-610 or Light Sport

www.eaa.org - EAA stands for Experimental Aircraft Association and is one of the original training exemption holders for ultralight aircraft and are a driving force to bring the new light sport rule to being.

www.sportpilot.org - This is EAA’s website that solely pertains to Sport Pilot.

One thing to keep in mind as you gather information is that you will come across two groups that are not necessarily supporters of the Sport Pilot Rule and as a result can prove to be negative about the positive features of the program. One group is the existing Ultralight Pilots that are being forced to transition over to this new airmen’s certification. Anyone can understand why members of this group are less than pleased with the new requirements. That being said, Sport Pilot is a positive force in their quest to fly, they just need time to adjust to the change.

The other group that has been expressing negative views on Sport Pilot is certain sectors of the existing standard category airmen. This is probably the group that you will come in contact with the most in your personal quest to become a Sport Pilot. This group’s biggest problem is that they are not looking at the big picture and they don’t see the potential that Sport Pilot has for general aviation. Let’s face it … change is something that most humans don’t readily deal with well! Lack of understanding means that you need to work at understanding and that requires work, research and an open mind. With out a doubt, as the years pass the controversy over whether or not Sport Pilot is a good thing will pass and the rule will be accepted as a positive change.

That being said, you need to remember that Sport Pilot is in its infancy stage; just celebrating its second birthday as this text is being written. So as you can imagine there are still some “bugs” being worked out of the program. Be patient and look to surround yourself with Sport Pilot positive individuals and groups and you can look back and say you participated in the biggest explosion in aviation since that first flight at Kitty Hawk!

After you have your checklist then the research starts. One thing to keep in mind is that you will find a gamut of information out there. We can thank the World Wide Web that you are here on this website learning about Sport Pilot and gathering information. Unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation out there and the information can be slightly misleading as a result. Don’t be discouraged and know that for as much wrong information that is available there is just as much information that will help you on your sport pilot journey.

NEXT: The Sport Pilot Adventure