Are there any motorgliders that can be logged as complex time?

To expand on Darryl's accurate observations, there are two terms unfortunately often confused and mistakenly used interchangeably by some who have not analyzed the FARs correctly.

There are AIRPLANES and there are AIRCRAFT. These two words look like they should mean the same thing, but they do not. Balloons, gliders, hang gliders, ultralights, hang gliders and a host of other things are AIRCRAFT.

Boeing 787s, Beech Bonanzas, Cirrus 22s, Gulfstream 650s, Cessna Citations and all the other similar flying machines are AIRPLANES.

You cannot get an AIRPLANE rating in an AIRCRAFT.

Although there is a particularly confusing exception involving a turbojet powered two-seat glider (Aircraft) being stuffed into an Airplane category.

I have a Private Pilot Certificate (Glider), but I also have a turbojet rating in Bob Carlton's BonusJet glider (www.desertaerospace.com). Right now, I think I am the only pilot in the world with a turbojet type rating, but no power certificate. I have the certificate in my pocket, but the FAA is still scratching its collective head trying to figure out how this is possible.

It's simple. We read their regulations better than they wrote them.

When I took my DPE training at the FAA, one of the instructors was fond of saying "it doesn't have to be fair, it doesn't have to make sense, it doesn't have to be right, But it's the regulation"

On Tuesday, December 22, 2015 at 7:42:38 PM UTC-5, Darryl Ramm wrote:
On Tuesday, December 22, 2015 at 2:51:42 PM UTC-8, Casey Cox wrote:
Complex is as you state, but I'm wondering, does your motor glider have required lights and instrumentation required of airplanes and not just glider? I'm just asking.

What does that have to do with anything?

1. There are gliders and there are airplanes. You cannot meet experience requirements that require an airplane in a glider. Same question has been asked on r.a.s. before...

2. Airplanes do not have automatic light requirements, well not for VFR day at least. They have instrumentation requirements, which vary greatly depending on certified or experimental category. But that is all beyond irrelevant because of #1.

I think what I was getting at was if gliders and airplanes have same instrument/light requirements then it would be easier for someone to sign off on.

And the original question is: Is there any motor gliders meet the requirement.

As the secretary says when she answers the phone at the FSDO, "FAA,
we're not happy until you're not happy".

And Mark, you CAN get an airPLANE rating in an airCRAFT, so long as the
airCRAFT is an airPLANE. Simple, right?

Oh yeah... The Stemme I've been looking at has navigation lights,
controllable propeller (two-speed, not constant speed), retractable
gear, and flaps (flaperons). It's way more complex than a C-182 RG, but
regs are regs. Gotta play the game.

On 12/22/2015 8:01 PM, SoaringXCellence wrote:
When I took my DPE training at the FAA, one of the instructors was fond of saying "it doesn't have to be fair, it doesn't have to make sense, it doesn't have to be right, But it's the regulation"

--
Dan, 5J

No, no motor gliders meet the requirement.
BillT

Bill T wrote on 12/23/2015 8:37 PM:
No, no motor gliders meet the requirement.
BillT


In fact, in the FAA world, there are no motorgliders. You might as well
say "No unicorns meet the requirement". ;^)

I used to think it was an anomaly that what we call "touring
motorgliders" were categorized as gliders, and wondered how long we
could "get away with it". After all, many of them are quite complex with
engine-on performance and range that exceeds many airplanes, and the
majority are used mostly as airplanes by pilots that don't have medicals.

Eventually, I realized that the accident rates weren't significantly
different than pilots with medicals flying similar aircraft, that the
FAA was aware of situation, and did nothing to change it because there
wasn't a problem. The introduction of the LSA license gave pilots
another way to fly airplanes besides the touring motorglider route, and
provided further evidence that a medical was not an asset. It probably
reduced the sales and prices of touring motorgliders, too.

Now, it appears the standard airplane category will finally have reduced
medical certificate requirements, likely reducing the interest in and
sales of LSA airplanes.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"

https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm

http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/...anes-2014A.pdf

Eric, you are correct, "motor" gliders are simply "gliders with a self launch capability." In the "eyes" of the FAA. (Friendly Aviation Assoc)

BillT