Aircraft weight has a lot to do with safety. The slow stall speed and gross weight limits for LSA make the airplanes much safer and more survivable in an accident than a Bonanza A-36 or Piper Saratoga, for instance. And the limit of 2 place for LSA minimizes the exposure too. We have to remember that LSA had its beginnings with the FAA wanting to get some measure of control - aircraft and pilot certifications primarily, over what had become the "heavy" ultralight world. Jerry E. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
-----Original Message----- From: "heavensounds" <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Sun, 4 Jul 2010 10:12:39 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [ercoupe-tech] Re: FAA Caves on Sport Pilot Jerry Good comment. My beef is with the FAA using rules based on questionable safety limits (aircraft weight, medical certificate) to artificially create market segments. Rules should be the minimum necessary to fix real problems, not to artificially create market segments, not even to promote technical innovation. Technical innovation should be driven by market needs, not by arbitrary rules. In my humble opinion, private pilots should not require medical certificates at all. Commercial and above (where you could be taking passengers for hire) should. If the ASTM standard is considered less safe than FAA certification, then it should be limited by the number of people it exposes to the decreased safety (2 or 4), not by a weight limit. However, I will accept that choosing 1320 lb. and matching the 600 kg standard previously set elsewhere has some practical value... Just my humble opinion. Eliacim ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2010 8:11 PM Subject: Re: [ercoupe-tech] Re: FAA Caves on Sport Pilot I am glad that some Coupes, Luscombes, Champs, et al. qualify for sport pilots to fly them. That makes a nice alternative for those who wish to fly a classic, basic airplane. But if Cessna 150s were included we'd have thousands of them depressing not only the classic market, but completely stifling any new innovation. I like flying the Tecnam Eaglet we have at our FBO. For a x-c flight of 300 miles the glass cockpit and full autopilot sure makes the trip nice. Going 125+ mph is nice too. But for a trip of 35 miles to have lunch, my general manager and I flew his LSA qualified T-craft today. Different airplanes - different missions. Each has its place. Jerry E. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: "Donald" <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Sun, 04 Jul 2010 00:33:12 -0000 To: <[email protected]> ReplyTo: [email protected] Subject: [ercoupe-tech] Re: FAA Caves on Sport Pilot Well, I may not be the brightest bulb in the string, I waited until the price of a C peaked (I think, but am not sure of that). Regardless, I am still very happy with my choice.
