Hi Bill,
Hi Gary,
You have a point that lack-of-vision and mentality/intention to vigorously support sport pilot on the part of some flight schools surely is a factor leading to the lack of places a sport pilot can train let alone rent.
And, yes, to an FBO having an LSA trainer or rental that can fly for 4 gallons an hour or less, compared to a Cessna that burns 8 or more per your, is a real plus for students and renters, and thus for the FBO.
But in the example I gave of my local FBO/flight school, they _ARE_ enthusiastic about training sport pilots.
As they said, it's simple economics:
It doesn't make economic sense for them to spend even what you called the "LSA's out there that make good trainers for under 100k."
And when you wrote "you can find LSA's out there that make good trainers for under 100k," two things came to mind:
1) "under $100K" is still a _far_ cry from the $25 to $40K a flight school can easily pick up a very nice condition Cessna 152, etc.
2) Most, if not all, of the admittedly _very_ nice LSAs I see for sale used under $80K are experimentals. (I just did a search on Barnstormers).
And you can't use experimentals or amateur builts as trainers in an FBO.
(A CFI/FBO can train you in YOUR experimental LSA but he/she can't OWN one and use it as a trainer or rental aircraft.)
Back to the bottom line as far as I can see:
With the exception of wanna-be sport pilots luck enough to live near some of the very few FBOs with LSA trainers and rental aircraft,
and/or the few with enough budget to go out and buy or build their own LSA, Sport Pilot isn't much of an attractive option and hasn't increased the number of pilots up there flying. I'll go on record as predicting it won't. And I'd safely be willing to bet you big dollars that any number of NEW pilots added to the pilot population licensed as sport pilots from this point on will be more than offset by the reduction of new ultralight pilots coming into the ultralight pilot population.
My two cents.
Alex
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