Sport Pilot Talk

I have been a sport pilot for the past 3 years. Today with almost 370 hours total time as a sport pilot, I took and passed my private pilot check ride. I am happy to be complete. I still will be flying my S-LSA but now I have some more options for flying at night, and higher altitudes (handy out here in Colorado with O2 as required).

Carl

Congratulations!

.......

Excellent. I did pretty much the same thing.

Just curious: how old are you and when did you take your medical exam?
Keith

newamiga wrote:I have been a sport pilot for the past 3 years. Today with almost 370 hours total time as a sport pilot, I took and passed my private pilot check ride. I am happy to be complete. I still will be flying my S-LSA but now I have some more options for flying at night, and higher altitudes (handy out here in Colorado with O2 as required).

Carl

Congratulations!

Congrats! Now you can fly to Mexico! Ole! Check into the Baja Bush Pilots and their group trips... some of the best flying adventures available.

Carl, that's great to hear. And you have the aircraft to match those broader ambitions, too.

Please give us a bit of a feel for how the RV-12 and its Rotax handle the higher density altitudes out West. So e.g. if we pick 6,000' DA or 8,000' DA - somewhat common, I would think, for daytime departures from 4,000'-5500' elevation airports - what has that 370 hrs shown you are typical climb rates? And are their altitudes out in the high country that you've found seem to work best for the RV-12? This is one aspect of the RV-12 I was never able to gather much of a perspective on before switching plans and choosing not to build.

Do you think you'll attempt another run out to Sebring's Expo this winter?

Keith I am 48. I got my medical this past January finally. I highly recommend Dr. Bruce Chien if you are looking at any SI related issues.

Jack I am flying my Gobosh 700 day to day. The RV-12 is still not finished. I am trying to decide if I will finish it or build something larger and faster. I am actually flying out to Sunriver OR this week in the Gobosh to attend the RV-12 expo. I will also be flying up to the Vans factory to take a tour and hopefully demo fly the RV-14.

As for performance at altitude out here.. In the winter, at my home field with an elevation of just over 6800 feet, I see solo climb rates of 1000 fpm pretty easily. In the summer the DA is regularly over 8500 feet and often can get up to 10K. Solo in those conditions I see around 700 FPM. If I'm at gross, obviously those numbers drop a bit. I have flown the Gobosh into Leadville several times with no issues and that was with two of us onboard. The 912 does very well out here from my experience. I suspect the RV-12 flight characteristics would be similar.

I am hoping to try and fly my plane down to Sebring again this coming January. I will also be flying it up to Oshkosh here in a few weeks as a racer in the Airventure Cup race. My near term goals also include trying to get checked out in the Cirrus SR-22 our flying club has up in Denver. Sure would make the trip to Sebring quicker . Of course the rental rate would be significant.

Carl

Carl,
Congratulations and welcome to the world of FAA Flight Examiners. Happy flying.. VR.. Don

Well done.

Congrats!

newamiga wrote:I have been a sport pilot for the past 3 years. Today with almost 370 hours total time as a sport pilot, I took and passed my private pilot check ride. I am happy to be complete. I still will be flying my S-LSA but now I have some more options for flying at night, and higher altitudes (handy out here in Colorado with O2 as required).

Carl

Congratulations Carl. I haven't been reading Sport Pilot Talk for the last week or so while studying/practicing for same. I got my PPL today (270hrs. TT.) and returned to see your thread. Flying home (DPE was an hour away) I was thinking if I were to do it all again would I have gone straight to private? Probably, but having to do what essentially was the same oral/practical 3 years ago was serious recurrent training.

Do we still get to contribute on this forum since we both have LSAs? ~

-Craig

Congrats to you too Craig. I still have the Gobosh and I am still building the RV-12, and am out here in Oregon for the RV-12 Expo. I still love LSA's. I did go by Vans Aircraft today for the factory tour and took a demo flight in the RV-14. That is one sweet plane and incredibly fast when you are used to a 100 HP engine. Going 145 kts without even trying today was really fun. It was funny that the Vans pilot I flew with had built a RV-12 and loved it. He is now building a Bearcat LSA model from scratch. So even though I have my PPL, I still intend to fly LSA's and get checked out in my flying club's non-LSA aircraft as well.

Carl

cogito wrote:Do we still get to contribute on this forum since we both have LSAs?

You absolutely can contribute! This board has plenty of Private Pilots talking about LSA.