Sport Pilot Talk

As we have established, a minimun amout of instrument training is required even for a Sports Pilot student to meet the 61.93 (e) (12) cross country requirements.

Question is, what to do if only training aircraft doesn’t have any gyro instruments. Just mag compass, airspeed and altimeter?

Throw cell phone out window and follow it

Actually I had a case where a tow pilot pulled me into the clouds while marginally within gliding distance of airport... Ended ok, low over the fence touchdown in grass with rollout to reach runway. A long haul back to takeoff position.

I had that situation when I was a 16 year old kid working on Private. I had to go to another airport and get instrument time in another airplane with another flight instructor. It wasn't a big deal since I did not fly solo.

The training is only required if the airplane has a Vh of greater than 87 kts. I don't recall seeing any LSA that require the instrument training that did not have some kind of instrumentation to meet the requirements. The one exception might be a Luscombe 8A. I have done some instrument training using needle, ball, and airspeed with students before.

In a few weeks I will be doing cross country training with my oldest son in a 1941 Taylorcraft. It has a needle and ball, and I plan to supplement that with the instrument page on a Garmin 496. We will see how that works. If it doesn't work I will get him some time in my Warrior. We will have to use it for his night training anyway.

Needle, ball, and airspeed is adaquate (plus mag compass and altimeter). There are some that don't have that. I saw an Ercoupe for sale on eBay recently that did not have the ball and needle.

TimTaylor wrote:Needle, ball, and airspeed is adaquate (plus mag compass and altimeter). There are some that don't have that. I saw an Ercoupe for sale on eBay recently that did not have the ball and needle.

You would not need any simulated instrument training as a sport pilot student doing solo cross country in the Ercoupe. It has a Vh less than 87 knots.

If you are going for a private pilot certificate you automatically need instrument training before solo cross country regardless of type airplane you are flying.

Good thoughts. While a Turn/Slip or Bank and Turn indicator are gyro instruments and would fit the bill, I have seen one or two LSAs the didn't have any gyro and no EFIS/GPS that you could use as an alternate.

I would go with the equipped aircraft as several are available in my area but I was curious what the group thinks on this.

3Dreaming: please keep us posting on the Garmin experiment. Wanting to but haven't tried it yet.

Jim Hardin wrote:Good thoughts. While a Turn/Slip or Bank and Turn indicator are gyro instruments and would fit the bill, I have seen one or two LSAs the didn't have any gyro and no EFIS/GPS that you could use as an alternate.

Did they have a Vh greater than 87 knots (100 MPH)?

Yes they did, just some of the early ones that tried to keep under the $200,000 mark