Sport Pilot Talk

Hi all, I'm from the Bay Area (the Danville/Tri Valley Area in particular). I've always had an interest in learning to fly and am looking at the sport pilot route. I'm still trying to figure out where to go for training...there are a few places locally (livermore and concord) but since I'm a bigger guy (240 lbs) it looks like I may have a harder time finding the right place. Any tips on where to go would be much appreciated.

My ultimate goal is to be able to fly from the Bay Area to our house at The Sea Ranch, as the drive takes a good 4 hours now with all the traffic. Assuming that I get comfortable enough with flying I'd also like to be able to get to hunting areas in the more remote parts of the state or even out of state.

Welcome aboard, Marc. Check out AeroDynamic Aviation on the Reid Hillview Airport (KRHV), 408-251-4939. They have a SportStar Max that should safely accommodate a 250# student.

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Thanks, Bruce. Good info. So admittedly, I am just in the early stages of exploring options, but one of the things I thought of doing is buying a plane that would have a sufficient weight rating to carry me and another person of normal weight (i.e., probably a combined 450 lbs) and then use the plane for my training. My gut says it's not the smartest move, but I can't stop considering it. Any input would be appreciated (the plane I'm thinking of is the Dova Skylark or a Remos GX).

Marc, back to your initial stated goals: It sounds like you need an LSA a/c that is capable of good endurance and at least decent speed, can handle unimproved airstrips safely, has a large cabin *volume* and also a substantial useful load. There are some excellent LSA choices that fit that description but most current LSA's do not offer that blend of characteristics. As mentioned earlier, one candidate is the Just Highlander - a kit which is built in South Carolina and then finished by both amateur builders and a wide array of commercial kit builders, with owner involvement to some degree. (See e.g. http://www.kitplanes.com/magazine/fixed ... 155-1.html ) I personally know of several folks who have built Highlanders because their goals were to do backcountry flying onto unimproved strips with 'camping under the wing' plans, both in the Southwest and Far West regions. They chose Highlanders because of that blend of characteristics mentioned earlier, including that interior volume since they need to pack in their camping gear and food, not just a passenger and adequate fuel.

IF you are going to earn a pilot's license and then IF you are going to use an a/c as you initially plan, then usually there is a good financial argument to buy the plane you learn in. The catch is to find one that will satisfy you long-term but shopping for it upfront when your knowledge about both a/c and flying is limited. OTOH that hasn't stopped many folks who've gone that route. Good luck to you!

Another airplane you might look at is the IPC Savannah. It is not super pretty or fast, but it can carry a pretty good load. It would also be good for a short field back country type airplane.

In response to your original question . . .

The flight school at the Concord Airport Used to have a Remos. If it's still there, you may want to look at it. As I recall, Remos LSAs have big useful loads.

The posts in this thread relating to the OP's medical issue have been moved to a new thread, "disqualifying medications," in the Medical Issues forum.

drseti wrote:The posts in this thread relating to the OP's medical issue have been moved to a new thread, "disqualifying medications," in the Medical Issues forum.

Whew! I was corn-fused for a minute there!

Thank you all for the great advice. This is one of the more useful forums I've ever used and the advice is much appreciated. I think it's going to take a while to sort out what I really want but I'm happy to have other folks with knowledge to help me out.