Sport Pilot Talk

how are you different from General Aviation being a light sport pilot.

do you feel "picked on" being a LSA pilot? is there any support for the LSA
"industry" in your area.

landing at an airport and pulling a Remos or Tecnam along side a Mooney Ovation on the left and a Beach Barron on the right. people seem to take a second look. not really sure what it is and the question. " is that one of those light sport aircraft"

it's funny. i have talked to a lot of guys and a few gals that are private pilot ranging from new to old. they seem to bash LSA's in general, UNTIL they fly one.

we all know they fly different than lets say a Archer or Barron. some of the LSA's fly more like an Extra. quite responsive.

i was wanting your take on the LSA's as a pilot or student pilot.

thanks
glyn

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if you can't fly right.... fly upside down

i never get picked on, sometimes i get radio calls on the ground from much larger aircraft. the usual comment is that my yellow CTSW is a good looking aircraft.

i fly out of a field @ 7,100MSL surrounded by hostile terrain. you don't see many taildraggers or low powered aircraft here due to the mountain winds and high density altitudes. The local pilots tend to comment on my performance, especially my climb rate.

i feel respected.

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I've been flying my Tecnam Bravo out of a Class C airport for over three years now, and, dispite a couple of my face-to-face conversations with the tower chief, the controllers still don't seem to know what a Tecnam is. I finally gave up trying to explain over the radio and just use "experimental" as the aircraft type.
Speaking of "experimental".... I went to an EAA Chapter picnic yesterday, and the old guys there were all sneery because I'm not flying a home-built or some type of vintage tail-dragger. And as for a Rotax engine.....boo hiss! Now if I just a Corvair or VW engine, well, that would be completely different!

might be better to use "light sport" then"experimental" ?

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i fly alot of lsa's. especially out of Denton Tx and for the past 2 yrs i still have to say "experimental" when talking the DFW. i start off with light sport, then go to either Tecnam or Remos. but eventually just saying, " Dallas App, lets just call it an Experimental" lol.. they go with it.

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if you can't fly right.... fly upside down

Man this is sad. Isn't it ATC's job to know what you are flying if you give them correct type? Experimental really conveys zero meaning where as LSA or light sport is going to let them know your speeds at least.

As to the sneerers, ask where you can get a Corvair that weighs in the same as 912, or VW rated at 100HP that won't blow itself apart. I'd be interested in either of those for my Zenith!


Ron

A Sport Pilot cannot fly a Cessna 152 like a PPL can, but yet some of the LSAs on the market are faster, have a better climb rate and use less fuel. Why would one be ashamed of being a Sport Pilot?

their not .. it's just that some GA pilots see LSA pilot as some sort of flying around the field guys.
then we have to bust out and show them out moves and planes. lol...

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if you can't fly right.... fly upside down

It's really great when I pull up in my Eurofox/Aerotrek in a place like Henderson (NV) and the lineman directs me to park between a couple of Citations - the smallest thing on the tarmac is a twin turboprop and here I come busting out 100hp...it's all good times.

If I act like I know what I'm doing/talking about, I get respect from towers/approach. When I deal with approach for flight following, I give them my identifier in my initial call.

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The EAA members in any chapter are quite aware that the "E" in EAA stands for Experimental, and one of the areas in which they like to experiment is powerplants (the guy on the street behind me is building a Kitfox with a Honda Civic engine). A Rotax 912 is just too expensive (and much too complex) to lend itself well to experimentation. A couple of days ago I watched a guy do a carb transplant on some type of odd-ball flat 4 installed in a gyroplane. Took him about 20 minutes. I'd like to see somebody do that on a 912!

It's kind of funny because I sometimes feel like a little less of a pilot, well student pilot, than I did when I was going for my private, but I haven't really found that to be the case around other aviation types. My instructor and I took the Sportstar down to Sun N Fun, and at every fuel stop, other pilots wanted to see our little Sportstar. One guy was in a beautiful brand new million buck Baron G58, and he was gushing all over the little 100k LSA. LOL

I have found it can be difficult with ATC, though. I don't know how many times I've had to explain what the Sportstar is while on VFR flight following. Even after telling them the FAA designation EVSS, they still seem confused. Several times, we just reverted to "Experimental," too, just because it was easier. I really wish the FAA would educate controllers what a light sport is.

Around my own field, no problem,

"This is Tecnam BRAVO Light Sport 649BV"

It flies there almost every day, but elsewhere the controllers don't understand what it is, so I just tell them it looks like a 150. Then in the pattern at Oakland, I hear them referring to me as a Cessna when they are giving the traffic to other aircraft.

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Chuck

today it was a summer stormy day of mountain flying. the sierra had an overcast layer on my return flight with a ceiling as low as 9,000 (terrain to 13,000 and lowest pass i could cross close to 10,000'). if i didn't have glass depicting weather and hi res terrain and syn vis this crossing would have been too much for me.

when i landed at mammoth yosemite airport there were only a couple of twin jets and a twin cheyene 400 turbine air ambulance. the cheyene pilot gave me a big smile and a fist pump, trying to say that he was impressed that i could fly in these conditions.

around here my light sport gets respect.

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Flying is suposed to be fun.No matter what the ride your still flying.I have an atp and own a twin and enjoy flying light sport just as much.With the new usa light sport designs coming out you get more bang for your buck,and if the medical goes the airplane stays.Just a thought.

Good training and a professional approach to flying (even if flying just for fun) will get go far to get you great service from ATC, FSS, FBOs, and respect from other pilots. Doesn't matter what you fly.

Granted, a 60kt approach at a busy commercial airport will ruffle some feathers if you can't follow directions, but if you can, you'll have minimal problems.

There are of course some "snooty" FBOs, but in my experience it is the exception, rather than the rule.