SportPilot
As of 2005, there are an additional set of rules under which you can fly and sell aircraft in the US, sometimes called the Sport Pilot or Light Sport Pilot rules.
The Sport Pilot regulations interest me, because they should significantly bring down the high cost of recreational flying. Right now I pay about $100 per engine hour to rent a plane. This is for ~25 year old usually ugly but reasonably safe Piper Warrior or Archer aircraft. I like this plane well enough -- it has four seats and can cruise at about 110 knots, burning about 10 gallons per hour of aviation gas. If I wanted to buy that kind of plane, it would cost me about $60K or so depending on engine time, avionics, history, etc. My hourly cost to operate it would then be about $40-$50/hour, though this calculation involves lots and lots of assumptions.
To me this is just crazy expensive, and Sport Pilot offers some hope. In exchange for some limitations, the FAA will allow light sport aircraft to be sold (complete and or as nearly complete kits) under a far-less expensive certification process. That, coupled with hopefully lower insurance costs and modern designs and engines should lower purchase and acquisition costs a lot.
The limitations are things like only two seats, fixed gear, max speed of 120 knots, and so on.
It looks like right now I could probably buy a new light sport aircraft for that same $60K, of more modern design and construction, with a warranty, and a modern engine that perhaps burns (cheaper) automotive fuel. All this should translate into a noticeably reduced operating cost. $60K is still a lot of money, but (perhaps with a partner) is something that I might consider. There's a lot of interesting possibilities besides just "Cessna or Piper".
Categories: flying
