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Legal sport aircraft?????

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 11:36 am
by awilson
I have been looking at a supposed Light Sport Champ. But I do not know if it is light sport compliant or not. Some of the changes made in the past MAY have been done to increase the GW to 1350. That takes it out of Light sport. But they may have been done for other reasons. For instance adding a wing tank can be for many reasons. But the kicker is that this aircraft has a placard which states "No intentional spins when carrying baggage" (something like that). That placard is only used on Champs 1350 or above. But the owner provided a recent weight and balance showing the GW as 1220.

So to make a long story short or simpler:
Lets say a person did upgrades that are also upgrades needed to increase the GW either on purpose or unintentionally but never recorded the GW change but did record the changes themselves and provides a recent weight and balance at 1220. Under that scenario is this then still a LSA or not since a new gross weight has never been declared?

I like the aircraft but am learly that someone is trying to pass off an aircraft that was modified to 1350 before LSA came into being. Now they want to tout it as light sport to up it's value and are being somewhat sneaky. I just cant find any reason to have the placard. Except that maybe a donor panel was used from a heavier Champ.

Any thoughts on the subject or questions I could pose to the seller would be appreciated. This is a Champion 7BCM. The 7CCM certification notes the changes to take it to 1350. 7BCM has no such notes.

Or maybe the answer is that no matter what mods you do to a 7BCM, it can't be taken to 1350 so I am safe? Except of coarse to make sure the changes were made and documented properly. But again, why or where did the placard come from.

thanks in advance,

Alan

Re: Legal sport aircraft?????

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 11:46 am
by CTLSi
awilson wrote:I have been looking at a supposed Light Sport Champ. But I do not know if it is light sport compliant or not. Some of the changes made in the past MAY have been done to increase the GW to 1350. That takes it out of Light sport.
First, are you saying the owner increased the gross weight but did not update the log books to reflect the true gross weight of the aircraft? If so, he has violated the regs and nullified the A/C.

Second, if you believe the aircraft to be over 1320 gross, then yes, the plane is no longer a light sport. The only LSA allowed to be over 1320 are water landers, and the ICON A5.

In any case, if you have doubts about the plane stay away from it...there are plenty of great choices out there.

Re: Legal sport aircraft?????

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 11:53 am
by MrMorden
If the airplane has *ever* had a gross weight above 1320lb, it is ineligible as an LSA. This is regardless of the reason for the weight increase, with the exception of adding floats (then 1430lb is the new limit). The airframe logs should tell you if there has been a weight change. If it's not in the log books, it never happened in the eyes of the FAA. If the airplane has incomplete logs, I'd pass since you can't have any way of knowing if it's compliant or not.

Re: Legal sport aircraft?????

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 12:03 pm
by drseti
For certified aircraft, any modification that would raise the max gross weight would have to be documented in either an STC or a Form 337. For $10, the FAA will sell you a data CD for that particular aircraft (by N number), that will include all STCs and 337s filed. If the CD is clean, and the logbooks are complete and clean, you're probably good to go.

See my EAA Webinar on LSA prebuys for more details:

http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=4206496475001

Re: Legal sport aircraft?????

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 1:13 pm
by awilson
drseti wrote:For certified aircraft, any modification that would raise the max gross weight would have to be documented in either an STC or a Form 337. For $10, the FAA will sell you a data CD for that particular aircraft (by N number), that will include all STCs and 337s filed. If the CD is clean, and the logbooks are complete and clean, you're probably good to go.

See my EAA Webinar on LSA prebuys for more details:

http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=4206496475001
Great advice, I just spent $10. It will be worth the education gotten regardless.

Re: Legal sport aircraft?????

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 1:37 pm
by drseti
awilson wrote:This is a Champion 7BCM.
The 7BCM is on the list of Sport Pilot Eligible certified aircraft (thus it is an LSA), but only if it has never been modified out of eligibility. The FAA CD will help you to determine that.