PILOTS WHO HAVE MADE THE TRANSITION
Although we do not have hard numbers, it
seems most sport pilots are happy with
their privileges and have not moved on to
get a private pilot certificate. I did find a
handful of pilots on Oshkosh365 who have
transitioned from sport to private. I was
interested in hearing about their experiences and advice. What they shared was
insightful, encouraging, and helpful, and
made the itch to fly even stronger.
Q: What was your motivation to tran- sition from sport pilot to private?
A: I loved LSA flying, but … a used GA plane is more affordable than most LSA,
and owning a plane is my goal.—Mike Bradford
I chose to start with sport pilot because I
wasn’t sure how serious I would eventually
want to become with aviation. Sport pilot
was my ticket to fulfill my dream of flying
on my own. While training I realized that I
could go further, which is why I transitioned to private pilot.—Tom Dinolfo
Q: Did the transition take longer/ shorter than you expected?
A: I had accumulated nearly 400 hours when I began my transition. I had to
do some instrument and night flying, but
that was only a few hours so the cost was
minimal.—Christopher Hiatt
Q: What did you enjoy most about he transition training?
A: Getting to fly bigger planes was a blast! My favorite flight during the
transition was flying at night in a Cessna
172R. Taking off at night felt odd, but the
air was smooth and the controls had more
inertia to them, so it was a very technically
easy flight, and I could concentrate more
on talking to ATC and maintaining situational awareness.—Jon Pierce-Ruhland
Q: What was the greatest challenge you faced?
A: Landing at night on a runway that you couldn’t necessarily see. It really
teaches you how to use all of your
peripheral clues to accomplish the landing
flare.—Matt Sommer
Studying for the written. I have the attention span of a 5-year-old, and I knew I
didn’t want to take it more than once.
—Christopher Hiatt
Night landings at small airports were the
most challenging part. I have 265 landings
in my logbook and only about 20 landings
at night. I think that explains why I find it
challenging.—Tom Dinolfo
Q: Did you notice a difference in the checkrides?
A: The only real differences between the two checkrides were a couple of questions on the ground, and the instrument
reference in the air.—Jon Pierce-Ruhland
I felt very confident going in for both the
oral and the practical exams, simply
because I had recently gone through the
process. I also knew that I didn’t have to
know everything, and it was okay to look up
a few answers when I wasn’t 100 percent
sure of the correct response.—Mike Bradford
I took my ride with the same examiner
who had done my sport pilot exam. He
knew I could fly the plane, so he wanted to
see the “higher order” levels of piloting
like decision-making, pilotage in the event
of a nav failure, and multi-tasking while
under instruments.—Matt Sommer
Q: Why did you choose sport pilot first? Would you do it that way again?
A: I initially pursued sport pilot as a lower-cost alternative to private pilot to
see if I liked flying. I also wanted to be able
to “use” the license for some fun trips to
evaluate the practicality and fun of flying
before investing the time and money into
the private pilot license.—Matt Sommer
I chose sport first because I wasn’t really sure
if I’d want to continue flying regularly, and
the requirements were less (you don’t need to
maintain a medical, for example). I don’t
regret attaining the precision of control that it
takes to pilot an LSA. If you can land your
