IACRA Application

Sport aviation is growing rapidly. But the new sport pilot / light-sport aircraft rules are still a mystery to many flight schools and instructors. To locate a flight school offering sport pilot training and/or light-sport aircraft rentals, click on the "Flight School And Rental Finder" tab above. This is a great place to share ideas on learning to fly, flight schools, costs and anything else related to training.

Moderator: drseti

3Dreaming
Posts: 3107
Joined: Sun Jan 10, 2010 6:13 pm
Location: noble, IL USA

Re: IACRA Application

Post by 3Dreaming »

foresterpoole wrote:With all that said, now I've got a bit of a conundrum. It appears I've got my oral exam for private A-OK. My hours are such that I'm within striking distance of a private, all I would need would be night flying (3 hours), instrument training (3 hours), 3 hours of solo X-Country and 1 hour of X-country training (I already flew the Sport version), and the 3 takeoffs and landings at a towered airport which I wanted anyway. My total hours would be a little over the minimum for private, but not more than 65 total. I would have to get a medical, and switch back to a 172 (I flew a few hours when I first started in one) which could burn a few hours as well. What is the groups thoughts, should I just finish out sport or just spend the extra and go for private????
I am first going to start by asking a question. Is the Tecnam night flight equipped? Does it have enough instrumentation for the instrument work? Does it have any electronic navigation (GPS)? If the answer is yes to the above there is no need to switch airplanes.

Lets talk about the required hours.

You should have some instrument training already. It is required for student cross country for private pilot and sport pilots flying an airplane with a Vh greater than 87kts. Any instrument training you have had counts towards the 3 hours.

Make the best use of your flight time. The 1 hour of cross country training needs to be at night anyway, so you are knocking out 2 things at once. You can knock out some instrument at the same time. You could do another hour of instrument training at night, I like doing the instrument training at night anyway. When you do the night cross country make it to a towered airport. When you do your solo cross country also go to an airport with a tower, and do your 3 take offs and landings. The time spent doing them will also count as cross country time if it is included in the trip.

By combining you can break down the hours you have listed to around 7 or 8

Oh, you will also have to take the private pilot knowledge test.
User avatar
foresterpoole
Posts: 307
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2016 12:28 pm
Location: Alexandria, LA

Re: IACRA Application

Post by foresterpoole »

I am first going to start by asking a question. Is the Tecnam night flight equipped?
the school only flies it day VFR and it's not equipt for IFR. No VOR, it has a horrible GPS unit I would only use in an emergency (I do know how to use it) since I have a phone and tablet. During my training we flew right at legal twilight's end twice , the instruments were hard to read and not backlit, I'd hate to fly like that. The school uses a 172N and 172SP for training. The N is old and beat up, the SP is in great shape, the N rents out for 10 more an hour than the tecnam so price wise it's not bad. My biggest concern is the transition back into the Cessna, heavier, slightly faster, and lands different, how long to relearn that, who knows. I took the step of booking the 172SP for my next flight, I figure "test drive" and see how it feels, can I transition fast, if not maybe table the idea, not much to loose (well maybe a few bucks).

Thanks for the time breakdown, my CFI friend pretty much broke it out the same way. Even if it took 10 more hours, that's still reasonable in my opinion.

The driving factor, the reason I'm even entertaining the idea of a private (I had waved it off until later), is my experience with the availability of light sport aircraft in this area recently. This is the only one I know of in the area to rent. It took pretty long to get the engine swapped, and if it has an accident that's it, there is no replacement available and the FBO makes money with it, but they make a lot more with two Cessna's so I'm seriously doubting they would replace it in a hurry. So I'd be grounded until I bought one, or stranded like before with a bunch of time and money invested and no way to enjoy it. Around here 172`s are easy to find and cheap to rent...
Ed
TimTaylor
Posts: 1594
Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2017 7:17 pm

Re: IACRA Application

Post by TimTaylor »

Seems clear to me. If you are confident you can pass a 3rd class medical, get a Private.
Retired from flying.
3Dreaming
Posts: 3107
Joined: Sun Jan 10, 2010 6:13 pm
Location: noble, IL USA

Re: IACRA Application

Post by 3Dreaming »

Something to factor into your decision. If you go ahead with the private now you will eliminate one checkride fee and aircraft rental to do the checkride. You can put that money towards the extra training. That alone will cover the cost of about 5 hours of training. Doing it now or later you will have the extra knowledge test fee, but if you go for the private it will seem like the sport pilot knowledge test was wasted.
User avatar
foresterpoole
Posts: 307
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2016 12:28 pm
Location: Alexandria, LA

Re: IACRA Application

Post by foresterpoole »

Well, I went up in what felt like a Cadillac today, A Cessna 172SP. Wow, it felt a bit different having 180HP, fuel injection, twice the weight and fancy gadgets available. I landed it unassisted twice, the thing felt like a tank and the glide is more like a brick than the kite of an LSA. The controls were very heavy in comparison to the Tecnam. We spend an extra half hour flying around weather, but went through all the basics: slowflight, S-Turns, stalls, steep turns, etc. One think I did notice: almost no rudder was needed comparing it to the light sport. My feet were bored, my arm got a workout thought. My only two hickups all day were when we came back, on my approach I made the mistake of dropping full flaps (30 degrees) like I was used to, should have left it at 20 degrees, it floated on final and I managed to bounce it twice. Good news, the bounce was corrected but it was totally different than the Tecnam, you really need to stall it onto the runway, don't fly it down (I now have an appreciation for what that truly means). I'm not proud of that, but thankfully the results were just fine. After some soul searching, I've got the hours, and just need a few additional items to check off which seem to be possible in a reasonable time frame. I'm going to continue on for a private, a medical was never an issue, I just thought I could get sport done sooner than reality. I still plan to fly the Tecnam whenever I can and probably for the checkride: it's cheaper and it's just fun to fly.
Ed
TimTaylor
Posts: 1594
Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2017 7:17 pm

Re: IACRA Application

Post by TimTaylor »

Good decision.
Retired from flying.
Post Reply