Sport Pilot or Private Pilot?

[3Dreaming]

If your sport pilot students are finishing in 32 hours with 5 hours of solo. You should be able to do a recreational pilot and finish in 30 hours with just 3 hours solo, even with the extra training given flying a simpler airplane.

[drseti]

That tracks pretty well with what Helen has been saying. I suppose if I had a certified aircraft on the flight line (instead of the 2 LSAs I'm now using), that would be worth considering.

[3Dreaming]

I may have a student starting soon that may be a good canidate, so maybe II'll find out.

[drseti]

Please keep us posted.

[rcpilot]

So I've been reading this thread and I find many of the comments interesting. Granted I have a minute fraction of the experience of most of the people here but I think I have some insight. First, I don't think SP has taken off the way they thought it would either. Maybe it's a geographical thing but here on Long Island there are a bunch of flight schools but only 1 still doing SP. And, they've gone from having 3-4 sport planes to just 1 Skycatcher. That's probably a good thing since it led me to getting my own, E-LSA. I don't think there is anything wrong with E-LSAs if you're careful about your selection process. They are certainly less expensive to maintain. My Zenith 601 has a more adequate useful load and in my inexperienced hands is pretty easy to fly. Now, getting someone to instruct you in an E-LSA might be a challenge. My instructor stuck with me after my accident laid me up for 6 months because he wants to see me finish and he doesn't believe any of the other SP instructors at my school will teach me in my plane. For the record before I bought my plane I made sure that the chief flight instructor at the school would provide me with an instructor.

I would think that if there was a demand for SP more schools would be doing it. To me I see more older PPs moving to SP, probably to avoid the medical. Actually, that's how I got my Zenith. The previous owner is an older PP who was concerned he might not pass his next medical so he moved to LSA. Unfortunately, his wife would only fly in one with a ballistic parachute so he bought another plane that had one and needed to sell his Zenith. I'm wondering what's going to happen to SP if they make changes to requiring a medical for PP.

I chose SP because at 55 I figured I'm not likely to have more than one passenger (my wife doesn't want to fly with me, my 21 y.o. son is not interested and I've been told I can't take my 4 y.o. daughter) and day, good weather flying was fine. Not to mention the significant cost savings over PP. After reading Paul's post about his students x-country training, I guess I'll need to talk to my instructor about me having more than one solo x-country. The dual x-country that I suggested and he's OK with will be long enough and involve some controlled airspace so I'll get good experience with it. So far I'm up to 22 hours about 6 of that was getting me back to where I was before my motorcycle accident.

[Merlinspop]

I chose SP because at 55 .... my 4 y.o. daughter....

Hey! You have me beat! I'm 52 with a 6 year old! I've not been given a prohibition on flying with him, but I haven't because he is still prone to pushing any button, pulling any lever, or otherwise grabbing anything that catches his eye, usually at the worst possible moment.

[Cluemeister]

Rc do you think your wife will ever warm up to the idea of flying? Is there someplace she would like to go that's a loooong time in a car?

My wife was not wild about me flying but now that I've painted the picture of going places (the beach) she's warmed up somewhat.

I would say don't give up on her yet!

[dstclair]

I chose SP because at 55 .... my 4 y.o. daughter....

Hey! You have me beat! I'm 52 with a 6 year old! I've not been given a prohibition on flying with him, but I haven't because he is still prone to pushing any button, pulling any lever, or otherwise grabbing anything that catches his eye, usually at the worst possible moment.

I don't think this is an age thing versus just being accustomed. My girls flew with me individually from ages 2 and 4 and even took the yoke from time-to-time. Our plane was also the family station wagon so they were used to being in the plane. Must have been an OK experience as my eldest went on to the Air Force Academy

[rcpilot]

Rc do you think your wife will ever warm up to the idea of flying? Is there someplace she would like to go that's a loooong time in a car?

My wife was not wild about me flying but now that I've painted the picture of going places (the beach) she's warmed up somewhat.

I would say don't give up on her yet!

She's understandably concerned about the potential dangers in my hobby, especially after I was almost killed in a motorcycle accident. It doesn't help that there has been about 7 plane crashes on Long Island this year. I suppose she might eventually come around. She didn't flip out when I told her I soloed.

[drseti]

Must have been an OK experience as my eldest went on to the Air Force Academy

You must be very proud of her. (Don't forget to tell her that, often.)