Used to be a Sport Pilot.. today I am a Private Pilot

[newamiga]

I have been a sport pilot for the past 3 years. Today with almost 370 hours total time as a sport pilot, I took and passed my private pilot check ride. I am happy to be complete. I still will be flying my S-LSA but now I have some more options for flying at night, and higher altitudes (handy out here in Colorado with O2 as required).

Carl

[FastEddieB]

Congratulations!

[MovingOn]

.......

[Jim Stewart]

Excellent. I did pretty much the same thing.

[Graumann]

Just curious: how old are you and when did you take your medical exam?
Keith

[Wm.Ince]

I have been a sport pilot for the past 3 years. Today with almost 370 hours total time as a sport pilot, I took and passed my private pilot check ride. I am happy to be complete. I still will be flying my S-LSA but now I have some more options for flying at night, and higher altitudes (handy out here in Colorado with O2 as required).

Carl

Congratulations!

[ct4me]

Congrats! Now you can fly to Mexico! Ole! Check into the Baja Bush Pilots and their group trips... some of the best flying adventures available.

[Jack Tyler]

Carl, that's great to hear. And you have the aircraft to match those broader ambitions, too.

Please give us a bit of a feel for how the RV-12 and its Rotax handle the higher density altitudes out West. So e.g. if we pick 6,000' DA or 8,000' DA - somewhat common, I would think, for daytime departures from 4,000'-5500' elevation airports - what has that 370 hrs shown you are typical climb rates? And are their altitudes out in the high country that you've found seem to work best for the RV-12? This is one aspect of the RV-12 I was never able to gather much of a perspective on before switching plans and choosing not to build.

Do you think you'll attempt another run out to Sebring's Expo this winter?

[newamiga]

Keith I am 48. I got my medical this past January finally. I highly recommend Dr. Bruce Chien if you are looking at any SI related issues.

Jack I am flying my Gobosh 700 day to day. The RV-12 is still not finished. I am trying to decide if I will finish it or build something larger and faster. I am actually flying out to Sunriver OR this week in the Gobosh to attend the RV-12 expo. I will also be flying up to the Vans factory to take a tour and hopefully demo fly the RV-14.

As for performance at altitude out here.. In the winter, at my home field with an elevation of just over 6800 feet, I see solo climb rates of 1000 fpm pretty easily. In the summer the DA is regularly over 8500 feet and often can get up to 10K. Solo in those conditions I see around 700 FPM. If I'm at gross, obviously those numbers drop a bit. I have flown the Gobosh into Leadville several times with no issues and that was with two of us onboard. The 912 does very well out here from my experience. I suspect the RV-12 flight characteristics would be similar.

I am hoping to try and fly my plane down to Sebring again this coming January. I will also be flying it up to Oshkosh here in a few weeks as a racer in the Airventure Cup race. My near term goals also include trying to get checked out in the Cirrus SR-22 our flying club has up in Denver. Sure would make the trip to Sebring quicker . Of course the rental rate would be significant.

Carl

[snaproll]

Carl,
Congratulations and welcome to the world of FAA Flight Examiners. Happy flying.. VR.. Don

[rgstubbsjr]

Well done.

[MrMorden]

Congrats!

[cogito]

I have been a sport pilot for the past 3 years. Today with almost 370 hours total time as a sport pilot, I took and passed my private pilot check ride. I am happy to be complete. I still will be flying my S-LSA but now I have some more options for flying at night, and higher altitudes (handy out here in Colorado with O2 as required).

Carl

Congratulations Carl. I haven't been reading Sport Pilot Talk for the last week or so while studying/practicing for same. I got my PPL today (270hrs. TT.) and returned to see your thread. Flying home (DPE was an hour away) I was thinking if I were to do it all again would I have gone straight to private? Probably, but having to do what essentially was the same oral/practical 3 years ago was serious recurrent training.

Do we still get to contribute on this forum since we both have LSAs? ~

-Craig

[newamiga]

Congrats to you too Craig. I still have the Gobosh and I am still building the RV-12, and am out here in Oregon for the RV-12 Expo. I still love LSA's. I did go by Vans Aircraft today for the factory tour and took a demo flight in the RV-14. That is one sweet plane and incredibly fast when you are used to a 100 HP engine. Going 145 kts without even trying today was really fun. It was funny that the Vans pilot I flew with had built a RV-12 and loved it. He is now building a Bearcat LSA model from scratch. So even though I have my PPL, I still intend to fly LSA's and get checked out in my flying club's non-LSA aircraft as well.

Carl

[designrs]

Do we still get to contribute on this forum since we both have LSAs?

You absolutely can contribute! This board has plenty of Private Pilots talking about LSA.