" Blueskies" wrote in message
...
What do you all think of this article?

...no way, I'm not going first!....

http://www.avweb.com/news/atis/189763-1.html

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clipped from Avweb...

May 22, 2005

Is Sport Pilot Training Uninsurable for Commercial Flight Schools?

As the details emerge of just how the Sport Pilot rules will work in the
''real world,'' one major block has turned up: Insurance companies may not
be willing to underwrite it. AVweb presents a guest opinion piece from a
frustrated Sport Pilot flight school.

My (very) limited experience with insurance and the Sport Pilot rules was a
couple months ago when I was due to get my 3rd class medical I asked my
insurance company if I would be covered if fly my Ercoupe under Sport class
rules using a current driver's license instead of getting my medical
renewed. This is the response I got back from my agent:

"With respect to Sport Pilot, so long as you comply with the Sport pilot
rules, your policy will remain in effect. If you have any questions, feel
free to call me."

Even though the insurance company said they would cover me to fly my Ercoupe
under Sport rules, I decided to go ahead and renew my 3rd class medical so I
could fly at night, fly at towered fields, etc. (which I haven't done since
renewing anyways :-(

A month later I took my Ercoupe in for its annual inspection and got to
talking with the mechanic/inspector. He told me that in order for the plane
to be flown by a Sport Pilot, the plane would have to be recertified as a
Sport Class plane, then I would have to get checked out by a Sport Pilot CFI
and any certified pilot that wanted to fly it would also need to be checked
out because it's Sport Class certified. Keeping it certified as a normal
aircraft, any certified (non-sport) pilot can fly it without needing the CFI
checkout.

There aren't many (any?) Sport Pilot CFI's in this area yet. So, I'll leave
my plane certified as normal. Hopefully the FAA will change its rules a bit
on the Sport Pilot and Sport Plane requirements that make it more automatic
to be able to become a sport pilot if your medical expires. Also make a
sport plane be able to use by both Sport pilots and regular pilots without
having to recertify it each time.

I was thinking of getting a Sport Pilot CFI rating added to my private
certificate (see the FAR's, it's possible) but right now it sounds like a
lot of hoops to jump through to do it...

Of course, the information I got from my mechanic/inspector may be total BS.
I haven't found all the answers yet to these in the FAR's, the FAA, AOPA, or
EAA websites.

-Greg B.