Was it John who wrote: > "I don't believe that a Sport Pilot eligible Ercoupe can be > a Certified Light Sport Airplane." ??? > Percy answered: > That is correct, John. The Ercoupes, like some other planes > (J-3 Cub, Taylorcrafts, Luscombs) falls under the classification > of planes that can be flown by a Sport Pilot under those rules > (no night, have to be able to see the ground, etc.).
Ah, terminology! An Ercoupe is a "certificated" aircraft. It has the traditional type of certificate, the same as a Bonanza, Cherokee, etc. Some few certificated aircraft are ALSO "Light Sport Aircraft" because they also meet the definition of LSA. This doesn't mean that the airplane stops being certificated nor does it change in any way. There are two or sort-of-three types of LSA aircraft with _special_ airworthiness certificates. 1. SLSA - Special Light Sport Aircraft These are manufactured according to the industry consensus standard. The industry used the existing industry consensus standard organization, ASTM. The consensus standard includes required flying characteristics, control forces, structural strength, testing procedures, material strength, source and tracking of materials, etc. Though this is a "voluntary" industry consensus standard, the FAA participated in the committee meetings and made "suggestions" that were not ignored. (I joined ASTM and participated in phone conference committee meetings, voted on standards and made a few suggestions during my year of membership.) The resulting standards are pretty rigorous, yet aren't nearly as expensive to comply with as were standard requirements for certificated aircraft. SLSA aircraft are factory manufactured. 2. ELSA Experimental LSA These are aircraft that came and come in three categories. 2a. Grandfathered ELSA These are all the pre-existing illegal "ultralight" aircraft, "fat ultralight" which were allowed to be inspected by the FAA or a DER and be certified much like experimental amateur built aircraft. They may fly pretty much anywhere like EAB. 2b. ELSA Kit built LSA I don't know if any of these actually exist, yet. A kit built ELSA is made from factory provided materials and assembled by the factory approved builder's manual. They must be done exactly like the factory says. There are few options and all options must be factory approved. They must be inspected, IIRC, by a factory representative to ensure compliance with building instructions before getting their special airworthiness certificate. Finally, ANY aircraft that meets the legal definition of Light Sport Aircraft IS a Light Sport Aircraft. So, there are a bunch of Experimental Amateur Built aircraft (EAB) that also are LSA and qualified to be flown with a Sport Pilot as pilot in command. Refer to Part 1 - Definitions and abbreviations ยง1.1 General definitions at: http://sportpilot.org/learn/sp_rule.pdf Summary: An Ercoupe is and always will be a certificated aircraft, subject to all requirements thereto. As an aside, many are ALSO eligible as LSA and legal to be flown by a Sport Pilot (or a Private Pilot operating under Sport Pilot privileges) acting as pilot in command. Ed Ed Burkhead http://edburkhead.com/Ercoupe/index.htm ed -at- edbur???khead.XXX change -at- to @, remove ??? and change XXX to com
