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Sport Pilot And Light Sport Aircraft
How Can I Become A Sport Pilot
To earn a Sport Pilot license, you must:
- Be at least 16 years old to become a student pilot (14 for glider)
- Be at least 17 years old to test for a Sport Pilot certificate (16 for glider)
- Be able to read, write, and understand English
- Hold a current airman's medical certificate or a current and valid U.S. driver's license, as evidence of
medical eligibility (providing the FAA didn't deny, revoke, or suspend the pilot's last medical certificate application)
- Pass an FAA Sport Pilot knowledge test (written)
- Pass an FAA Sport Pilot Practical test (oral, flight)
Minimum training requirements, are (from 14 CFR 61.313):
- 15 hours flight instruction
- 5 hours solo
- 2 hours cross country flight training
- 10 takeoffs and landings
- 1 solo cross country flight of at least 75 nautical miles total distance (with at least two landings, and with one leg of the cross country trip at least 25 miles in length)
- 2 hours flight training within the previous 2 calendar months, in preparation for the practical test
- Training must include those items listed in
61.309 and
61.311
The requirements for other types of Light-Sport aircraft are:
- Powered Parachute: 12 hours
- Weight-Shift Control (trikes): 20 hours
- Glider: 10 hours
- Rotocraft (gyroplane only): 20 hours
- Lighter-Than-Air: 20 hours (airship) or 7 hours (balloon)
What Are My Privileges As A Sport Pilot?
As a Sport Pilot, you may:
- Operate as pilot in command of a light-sport aircraft
- Carry a passenger and share expenses (fuel, oil, airport expenses, and aircraft rental)
- Fly during the daytime using visual flight rules (VFR), with at least three statute miles visibility and visual contact with the ground
- Cross-country flying anywhere in the U.S.
- Fly up to 10,000 feet above mean sea level (MSL), or 2,000 above ground level (AGL) above terrain, which ever is higher
- Fly solo or with one passenger
- Share operating expenses with another person
- Fly in Class E and G airspace (and B, C, and D airspace with appropriate training and CFI endorsement)
- Privileges to fly additional "Class and Categories" of planes, with CFI training/endorsement, and passing a "proficiency check"
What Are My Limitations As A Sport Pilot?
- Prohibited from Class A airspace
- Prohibited from flying in Class B, C, or D airspace until you receive training and a logbook endorsement from an instructor
- No flights outside the U.S. without prior permission from the foreign aviation authority
- May not tow any object
- No flights while carrying a passenger or property for compensation, hire
- Prohibited from flying in furtherance of a business
What Is A "Light-Sport Aircraft"?
A Light-Sport Aircraft is any airplane, glider, lighter-than-air (airship or balloon),
rotorcraft (gyroplane only), powered parachute, or weightsift control aircraft (trike)
that meets the following definitions:
- Maximum of one non-turbine engine (includes rotary or diesel engines)
- Fixed or ground adjustable propeller
- Unpressurized cabin
- Fixed landing gear, except for an aircraft intended for operation on water
- Two-place maximum (pilot and one passenger)
- Maximum gross takeoff weight: 1,320 lbs (1,430 lbs for seaplanes. Lighter-than-air maximum: 660 lbs)
- Maximum stall speed: 51 mph (45 Knots)
- Maximum speed in level flight with maximum continous power (Vh): 138mph (120 Knots)
- Will have an FAA registration N-number
- Aircraft can be certificated in any category (such as Standard, Primary, Amateur-Homebuilt,
Experimental Light-Sport, Special Light-Sport, etc.)
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