Sport Pilot Instruction For All
The Sport Pilot license and Light Sport aircraft (both definitions) are fairly new in the grand scheme of flying, and they are still confusing to many.
Before we started offering tailwheel training, we checked with the FAA's Specialty Aircraft Examiner Branch, AFS-610, and spoke with Inspector Mike Sees (you should go right to the source, because Sport Pilot and Light Sport Aircraft are an enigma to other branches of the FAA and many FSDO personnel). We confirmed that, because there is no category or class restriction on a tailwheel endorsement (14CFR61.31) for the pilot, any tailwheel aircraft satisfies the requirement. Basically, you can train in our BushCat and then be legal in a DC-3. Of course, you'd have to meet all of the other qualifications for a DC-3, but the tailwheel part is covered :-)
Our instructor licenses limit our instruction to Light Sport aircraft. Our aircraft are factory-built Special Light Sport Aircraft (S-LSA), which means they can be hired out for instruction and rental like a typical Part 23 aircraft. The equivalent of an Experimental - Amateur Built (E-AB) aircraft is an E-LSA, which like an E-AB cannot be hired. They are maintained per 14CFR91.327(b)(2) and 14CFR91.327(c)(1) as applicable to aircraft having a special airworthiness certificate in the light-sport category.
We are also limited to training only Sport Pilots, or more properly providing training relevant for a Sport Pilot license. However, what Mr. Sees also clarified is that any/every licensed pilot can legally fly as a Sport Pilot; it is essentially the lowest common denominator of any license, and we're all Sport Pilots at heart. So at any time a Private Pilot (or Commercial Pilot or even Air Transport Pilot) can fly a Light Sport (qualified or certificated) aircraft without a medical as long as it is within all of the limitations of a Sport Pilot. It is for that reason, and because the regulations only require one license to be reviewed in a flight review, that we can do flight reviews for any airplane pilot. One example would be a multiengine ATP who is also a Glider Pilot can do a flight review in a Glider and it will renew her ATP license as well.
Basically, our licenses limit us to training only in a Light Sport aircraft, but they do not limit the licensed pilots we can train for tailwheel and/or a flight review.
Before we started offering tailwheel training, we checked with the FAA's Specialty Aircraft Examiner Branch, AFS-610, and spoke with Inspector Mike Sees (you should go right to the source, because Sport Pilot and Light Sport Aircraft are an enigma to other branches of the FAA and many FSDO personnel). We confirmed that, because there is no category or class restriction on a tailwheel endorsement (14CFR61.31) for the pilot, any tailwheel aircraft satisfies the requirement. Basically, you can train in our BushCat and then be legal in a DC-3. Of course, you'd have to meet all of the other qualifications for a DC-3, but the tailwheel part is covered :-)
Our instructor licenses limit our instruction to Light Sport aircraft. Our aircraft are factory-built Special Light Sport Aircraft (S-LSA), which means they can be hired out for instruction and rental like a typical Part 23 aircraft. The equivalent of an Experimental - Amateur Built (E-AB) aircraft is an E-LSA, which like an E-AB cannot be hired. They are maintained per 14CFR91.327(b)(2) and 14CFR91.327(c)(1) as applicable to aircraft having a special airworthiness certificate in the light-sport category.
We are also limited to training only Sport Pilots, or more properly providing training relevant for a Sport Pilot license. However, what Mr. Sees also clarified is that any/every licensed pilot can legally fly as a Sport Pilot; it is essentially the lowest common denominator of any license, and we're all Sport Pilots at heart. So at any time a Private Pilot (or Commercial Pilot or even Air Transport Pilot) can fly a Light Sport (qualified or certificated) aircraft without a medical as long as it is within all of the limitations of a Sport Pilot. It is for that reason, and because the regulations only require one license to be reviewed in a flight review, that we can do flight reviews for any airplane pilot. One example would be a multiengine ATP who is also a Glider Pilot can do a flight review in a Glider and it will renew her ATP license as well.
Basically, our licenses limit us to training only in a Light Sport aircraft, but they do not limit the licensed pilots we can train for tailwheel and/or a flight review.