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Andy

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About Andy

  • Birthday July 2

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    http://www.theandyzone.com

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  • Location
    Friendswood, TX
  • Interests
    CTSW, flying, flight instruction techniques, writing, Macs, manned spaceflight, hiking, camping
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    Male

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  1. You raised an interesting point about numbers so I went to the FAA website to see what I could find. The latest numbers from a 2022 spreadsheet there shows 79 active recreational pilots (down from a maximum of 238 in 2013) and 6,957 sport pilots (up from a low of 4824 in 2013). There's no category and class ratings associated with a sport pilot certificate (it's controlled by endorsement) so I can't specifically tell how many are fixed-wing, but I believe it's safe to say that there are a lot more fixed wing sport pilots than rec. I agree with you about using the accident statistics to tell much; certainly, if I was presenting that data, I'd caveat it. I feel like this change may automatically move things in the direction you're suggesting (i.e., an upward movement of sport pilots in the "safety continuum") unless we see an uptick in accidents once flying in the 4 seaters starts. The actual flight training between sport airplane and PPL airplane is almost identical and this will make it more so, making me think that at some time in the future the two ratings might merge or at least be seen as equivalent for most GA single engine aircraft.
  2. Actually, that is exactly what flying under Light Sport rules has meant and still means; you can just do it in a 4 seater now. If you have a PPL or higher and a Class III or Basic Med, you can throw 3 more people into that 4 seater. If you have a PPL or higher and are flying on your DL, you're limited to one...just as you would be if flying an LSA. From the NPRM: " "This proposal would also expand what aircraft sport pilots can operate. Under this proposal, sport pilots could operate heavier aircraft than currently allowed under the § 1.1 definition and airplanes with up to four seats, even though they would remain limited to carrying only one passenger. This one passenger limitation would also apply to a flight instructor with a sport pilot rating conducting flight training in a four-seat airplane."
  3. Toward the end of the NPRM, they have all the regs written out. Night flying for a Sport Pilot requires 3 hours of training and an endorsement, 10 takeoffs and landings, a night x-c with one landing 25 miles from the departure airport and he/she must be flying with a Class III or Basic Med. (It's the FAA's way of "continuing to protect the public".)
  4. If you're exercising sport pilot privileges (regardless of your certificate level), it's 1 pax.
  5. On the insurance topic, I also think that high repair costs are part of the issue. When I was renting my airplane as a trainer, a rental pilot hit a bird and punched out an elliptical 3 inch hole in the canopy. Since the canopy is integrated into the airframe, it ha∂ to be cut out, requiring composite work and painting to replace. In my case, there wasn't a canopy available in the U.S. and it took us ten weeks to get a new one and get it put in. The total bill came out to about $10K (though $2K involved transportation costs that could have been largely mitigated if I had been able to ferry the airplane to the repair site, which I was incorrectly told I couldn't do "because the canopy was part of the structure". The hit was right at the left edge so the area appeared to be structurally stable and there was only one small crack stretching out from the "hole" which I thought we could have stop-drilled and then taped the whole thing over for a ferry flight up to Tulsa from Houston. Once the mechanic got to the airplane and saw it, he asked why I hadn't flown it up after being the one who told me not to do it after I sent him pictures.
  6. If you bring an airplane, then I'm interested. I don't use my own CT for training and there aren't any others for rent/training in the area (or any other light sport I know of.). Always open to getting together for a little flight time, in it though, if you want to come down to Pearland (KLVJ).
  7. I'm a CFI-S with SW experience on the south side of Houston (KLVJ).
  8. Hey Andy,

    I've been having some rather intense discussions with FD USA about the whole "on condition"/TBO issue.  Their stance currently is that all Rotax maintenance intervals and requirements must be adhered to; they instructed their service center north of me that when my airplane hits the 15 year calendar life limit on the engine in October, the aircraft would be "out of compliance" for a sign-off.  Frankly, I believe that FAA 2015 Keller legal opinion does back that stance, so right now I'm looking at taking the CT to ELSA. Not sure of the insurance impacts yet, though I currently have coverage with Avmeco and am fairly certain they won't go there.  Who are you insuring with?

  9. Here's an article from Flying magazine about that: How It Works: BRS Aircraft Parachute | Flying (flyingmag.com). I personally use 300 ft as my minimum altitude for a pull for engine out; if you're out of control, you've got nothing to lose by pulling and hoping it works.
  10. You're welcome to take a look at what I used for a transition syllabus when I was training folks in and renting out my CTSW. It's built assuming the pilot has no CTSW time and further presses a bit into "rusty pilot" territory; as always the instructor can use his judgement to pick and choose what he wants to use in it. While the time it takes is about 8 hours, many folks can run through it in less time but I had a 5 hour minimum because that matched up with what I trained with and met the insurance requirements at the time. You might find it helpful to see if it hints at some area you haven't already thought of. The transition syllabus is on page 71. : http://www.theandyzone.com/flight/cfisp/AF_LSA_Syllabus.pdf. While I understand the crosswind limitation approach, I think that has to be left up to the instructor and don't agree with it as a matter of policy except at the demonstrated crosswind limit for the aircraft. A school at another airport used that with a Skycatcher with a 5 knot crosswind limit, and one of their newly certficated LSA pilots came to me to check out in a Remos on a moderate crosswind day. He didn't handle it well and so I logged what we had done and told him I felt his crosswind technique needed work before I would give sign him off as "checked out". He had never flown in anything higher than 5 knots. The school hadn't done the guy any favors by releasing him that way nor will it help anyone involved on the day he hauls the airplane out on a cross-country with blue sky in front of him and a 10 knot crosswind on takeoff.
  11. The one thing I haven't seen brought up so far in this discussion is whether the pilot is flying under Light Spot rules (with a Light Sport or higher certificate) or an LSA with at least Private Pilot privileges. If under Light Sport rules, then you must be able to maintain ground contact (i.e. no overflying an overcast or broken ceiling though you might be able to make an argument however poor with the latter) ceiling and can't fly in under 3 miles viz even with a SVFR clearance. If using Private Pilot rules (even using Basic Med), then you can overfly a ceiling or take that SVFR clearance and go.
  12. Make sure you're not getting co-channel interference with any other wi-fi devices, like your smartphone or a Go Pro. I have to turn off my iPhone SE to avoid it sporadically knocking out ADS-B in from my Echo UAT to my iPad.
  13. The model in FS 2020 is a CTSL instead of a CTLS. Got a cockpit closer to a CT2K or older SW. Great photorealism from the sim and the visibility out of the airplane is close to the real thing. Much easier to fly a VFR pattern than in most flight sims. The flight model seemed pretty good but the airport modeling was way off for KLVJ (controlled field when not aand lots of bigness that doesn't really exist). Lots of sim controller tweaking necessary because I used an older CH Pro FlightStick and rudder pedal set. I do have the sim settings set up high, a fairly new Alienware system running it, and glad I do. Right now, I like the VSKYLABS CTLS with X Plane 11 better but it's still early and I will get the FS 2020 model tweaked down. Does make the X Plane 11 environment seem pretty dated...
  14. I have attached the 2015 Keller FAA legal opinion that also steers in the direction that for LSA TBO is mandatory. The solution Arian proposes would address the issues that the opinion writer has about moving past the TBO. I take it from the responses here, there's not much interest in working up a program to pitch; and as a private owner going ELSA is in some ways a better solution. If there is no formal program for going past TBO by next year, I'm going to take mine to ELSA to avoid any possible entanglements. As the airplane ages, it'll probably make it easier to keep it flying anyway. My cut is that the FAA tends to defer to the aircraft manufacturer because of how they have implemented the LSA rules, so if Arian has truly captured where FD has come down, then it's going to be more risk than I want to take by remaining SLSA. I'd love to see an effort made to come up with a "flying past conditional" program because I believe it would be good for the whole LSA community. From the way he responded, though, I take it we'd have to come up with a proposal. Admittedly, it might be more hassle and expense than simply going ELSA, but then I'm thinking about the training and resale market as well. Still, I'm willing to work on something if there's enough interest, though I certainly don't have the expertise to do it by myself. PM me if you think you'd like to press forward with something, and we'll see if we can get enough resources to go forward. Keller - (2015) Legal Interpretation.pdf
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