instructors and students love the airplane, and we’re seeing increasing
demand for it in the flying club.”
With deliveries of the Cessna SkyCatcher set to start by the end of this
year, Cessna has joined with King
Schools to produce a new sport pilot
training program. Now, sport pilot
training will be available at Cessna
Pilot Centers throughout the country.
Cessna’s entry level training program and curriculum is new to the
Cessna Pilot Centers. Julie Falucci,
manager of Cessna Pilot Centers, said
the training blocks for sport pilots are
designed for sport and private pilot
training, and the SkyCatcher will
become the primary training plane
for both certificates. Sport pilot students will have the choice to include
private pilot study material during
their training. She said this allows a
sport pilot to easily continue for private pilot training, and it also makes
it easy for a private pilot trainee to
elect to obtain a sport pilot certificate
on the way to becoming a private
pilot. By combining the training with
the use of the SkyCatcher, Cessna
hopes to be able to retain more private pilot students who may have
dropped out in the days before the
sport pilot option was available.
Martha King, of King Schools, said
the new Cessna sport/private pilot
ground training program uses a full integration of graphics, animation, interaction, and videos. The course includes
a number of activities where the students can take an action that results
in an action. King
said the Cessna
program teaches
what they will do
in the real world
by using real scenarios, including
risk factors. This
teaches aeronautical decision-mak-ing and situational awareness in every
lesson rather than waiting for a specific
training block. While King Schools
joined with EAA early in the sport pilot
training process, the Cessna/King program is new from the ground up.
Jeppesen, the giant training division of the Boeing Company, has
also moved into sport pilot training
with an online program. Jeppesen
introduced it in June, and it is keyed
to the student and flight instructor. For a small additional fee, the
CFI can access his or her student’s
training program and manage the
course. This interactive course goes
far beyond the mentality of simply
“teaching the test.”
Both Cessna/King and Jeppesen
used sport pilot as a new starting
place for training technology. Sport
pilot, our 5-year-old newcomer, is
bringing a new and fresh look to aviation training, and I expect to see what
is being learned in sport pilot training applied to more advanced pilot
certification training programs in the
future. Who would have believed five
years ago that sport pilot would start
a trend in training that is setting new
industry training standards?
Randy Schlitter, of RANS Aircraft,
told me about 80 percent of his sales
go to pilots with higher-level certificates, and John McBean, of Kitfox
LLC, gave me the same number. Both
of these companies produce S-LSA
that are priced at the lower end of
the spectrum.
To summarize, I came away with
the impression that the highest percentage of the new S-LSA are being
sold to pilots with higher-level pilot
ratings. The thing we can’t track very
well is who is buying these planes the
second time around when they are
resold. This could become the market
for new sport pilots.
The Airplanes
Who are the buyers of the new special light-sport aircraft (S-LSA)? There
are about 1, 100 S-LSA registered with
the FAA, and once again, I came
to my conclusions based on several interviews with S-LSA sellers and
manufacturers.
Tom Peghiny of Flight Design USA
told me that until recently most of
his planes were being sold to pilots
holding higher-level pilot certificates.
However, he pointed out, a recent
change has seen an increase of his CT
product line being bought by flight
schools. And Tom said student purchases are now starting to show up.
Pete Krotje of Jabiru USA said, “In the
early days, most buyers were Bonanza owners stepping down because of
medical issues.” However, he now
sees increasing
sales with new
pilots and flight
schools. He confirmed the age
group of buyers
is usually over 40.
Al Adelman,
of Chesapeake
Sport Pilot, said
his sales of Tecnam aircraft are different. He runs a major sport pilot training school and said business is booming. His students form a solid customer base of buyers for his sales of
Tecnam aircraft. To encourage ownership, he offers airplane purchasers a lease-back program, which lets
student training pay for the plane.
His company manages all aspects of
the lease-back. Adelman said sales to
new pilots and existing pilots is about
50-50.
Who would have believed
five years ago that sport pilot
would start a trend in training
that is setting new industry
training standards?
And Finally
I spoke with lots of companies, different people, and friends at EAA
AirVenture 2009 as I tried to piece
together a view of sport pilot at the
age of 5. It’s impossible to include the
names of all of them, but I appreciate their input; they all added to the
mosaic that tells the sport pilot story.
Sport pilot is up and running even
though it has stumbled a bit, and it
may stumble now and again as the
regulations are fine-tuned for reality. For example, the recent decision
by the FAA to not allow certain dual
instruction given to a sport pilot
to be used toward a higher pilot
certificate is a hurdle that must be
addressed, and the overall aviation
population, including flight instructors, still needs a better understanding of the value of sport pilot.
Has sport pilot grown up? In my
opinion, our 5-year-old child is maturing and is in fine condition. Cessna
has started the ball rolling by using
the SkyCatcher as a spearhead for all
primary pilot training at its Cessna
Pilot Centers. I predict that when we
revisit sport pilot on its 10th birthday,
we’ll find most new pilots will start
their training with the sport pilot
option. Has sport pilot grown up?
I don’t think we will be asking this
question five years from now.
Earl Downs has been flying since the
age of 14. He is an instrument-rated
certificated flight instructor, holds an
airline transport pilot certificate, and is
an airframe and powerplant mechanic.
He owns Golden Age Aviation in Cushing, Oklahoma, flies a Luscombe and
a Kitfox Lite, and is building a Zenair
601 XL.
