Lee asked:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Why don't we as coupe owners/lovers work to gether to get FAA to reclassify
the maximum weight of LSA to 1400 lbs. That way all coupes could be flown
with a auto level medical. Personally, I think that setting the 1260/1320
lbs is just another government thing and serves no purpose of safety. A
1260/1320 lb plane won't cause less damage to property or passengers than a
1400 lb plane will.
Accomplishing this feat would increase the number of planes that LSA folks
could fly and increase the value of the 1400lb craft.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Lee,
When they wrote the regulation, they chose the gross weight explicitly to
exclude virtually all the fleet of certificated trainer aircraft. The
purpose was to force production of new aircraft to revitalize manufacturing
and get some planes in the air that weren't based on 60 year old designs.
The gross weight chosen was a nice round number, 600 Kg. They made the rule
that a specific plane could not ever have been certified at a higher gross
weight any time in its history to prevent wholesale recertification of
thousands of experimental aircraft.
I'll bet dollars to gumdrops that you won't get the FAA to change the
regulation to allow a higher weight. Certainly not without raising it high
enough to include the 150/152 aircraft who have a huge clout compared to
ours. The Feds just won't change a regulation, like asking Congress to
change a law, to benefit us.
This wasn't done by accident. They had a purpose in choosing this gross
weight limit for LSA and the purpose is being served by the surge in new
models of light aircraft.
(I won't hinder you from trying and I'll get behind and push, too. But I
don't expect you'll win.)
What I'd like to do would be to get an official document from the FAA saying
that any aircraft whose airworthiness certificate never allowed a gross
weight higher than 1320 lb. (600 Kg.) is eligible as an LSA and that no
other documents override this. This will bring in a bunch of Coupes for
which people never changed the airworthiness certificate.
Ed
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