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Description
The very idea of a sport aircraft seems the antithesis of IFR flying. These are fun-to-fly two-seaters, not foul-weather traveling machines. The biggest share of buyers right now are folks with fat log books and thinning hairlines who have a "don't ask, don't tell" relationship with their medical certificates-or owners of larger aircraft who just got tired of $4000 annuals.
Flight training is the other target market. Light-sport aircraft (LSAs) can be used to train private pilots and instrument pilots. In fact, they are doing it right now. But because we believe in taking private and instrument students in the soup, a good IFR trainer must be IMC-capable. Capable means legal and safe. Could a sport plane do this? Yes and yes ... with a few caveats.
WhadDya Mean by Sport?
Let's be clear on what we're talking about. There are sport pilots and there are sport planes. Sport pilots can fly without a medical, but they can't fly IFR. LSAs must meet a bunch of requirements--no more than 1320 pounds, max continuous forward speed (Vh) of 120 knots, etc.--but they can be flown by private, commercial, or ATP pilots. Those pilots can exercise the privileges of their certificate provided the sport plane meets the appropriate aircraft requirements. So a private pilot can fly a sport plane under IFR if they have an instrument rating and the sport plane is legal for IFR flight.
Now you're unlikely to ever hear, "Legend Cub Two Three Lima is cleared for the ILS Runway 29 approach." But several of the sport planes out there meet the FAR 91.205 requirements for instrument flight. These are mostly the slick composite machines.
FAR compliance isn't all an LSA would need, though. There are two more requirements. Unlike Part... |
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