Postby Cub flyer » Sat Apr 07, 2018 10:01 am
Good to know about the Sport Pilot not having a specific weight just the light sport airplane
I have not read Part 61 in a long time so I missed that.
I’d rather not see any HP limits added because HP has no bearing on how easy an airplane is to fly depending on airframe size proportions.
Though it is a almost set as a package with max clean stall speed, max gross weight and max speed. Wing loading and airplane size are almost set by those limits if you are to hit them all. Empty weight is set by the regs for ATSM F2245-09 minimum useful load.
The area not fully explored would be for single place airplane vs 2 place. But marketing drives that.
If it’s a standard cat airplane that meets the sport pilot limitations. The standard cat has no minimum useful load.
Unless there is some major advance in structures design, airfoils or engines the current rules limits kind of define the fixed wing airplane.
Part 23 rewrite would be interesting. Part 23 started out not too bad and a lot of the rules make sense. The trouble is not the rules but the test process and different interpretation between FAA offices. The rule have become so bloated with excess that does not apply to our little airplanes in a lot of ways.
Since so many CAR4A and CAR3 airplane are still flying maybe just go back to those known previously published rules. And the existing AD, SB system. Why mess with what has been proven to work? I don’t mind having parts / designs that are “Certified"within reason and tested with results reviewed by a government entity. Question is who is doing the reviewing and what is their background?
"Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add but when there is no longer anything to take away." Antoine de Saint Exupery