FAA Sport Pilot instructor Privileges and Responsibilities

By ANN Correspondent John Ballentyne

Jay Tevis, FAA Aviation Safety Inspector, gave a presentation discussing Sport Pilot instructor Privileges and Responsibilities in a well-attended seminar on the south end of Wittman Field. The crowd was mostly mature gentlemen (I fit right in).

Our speaker, Tevis, is from FAA AFS-610 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Backing up Tevis was Larry Clymer, also a FAA Aviation Safety Inspector from ASF-610.

Jumping right in, Tevis handed out a copy of the (CFR 61.303) matrix (chart) of sport pilot instructor privileges and responsibilities. Projecting the FAA PowerPoint slide program on a screen, he followed the chart from top to bottom, but not without interruptions.

After only about 10 minutes of presentation, Tevis was receiving questions from the audience. Everyone seemed to be trying to follow along and understand all of the details. [You may download this FAA handout from: http://afs600.faa.gov/documents/pdf/61.303Handout.pdf ]

The discussion got hung up a little with questions about sport pilot instructors who may use weight-shift and powered parachutes to teach those who seek private pilot privileges. Sport pilot instructors for three-axis airplanes may not instruct students for initial private pilot.

(Personal note: I have never heard FAA point out that a powered parachute pilot [or weight-shift trike] with private pilot privileges is not limited to two-seaters. That is to say a private pilot-powered parachute [or trike] may fly a 3, 4 or more seat amateur-built experimental powered parachute, for example.)

Some participants got lost in the meaning of a "Set" of aircraft. Tevis explained how the Set was illustrated by comparing groupings of aircraft with tricycle gear three-axis airplane versus tail wheel, three-axis airplanes.

The phrases "Sub-part H instructors" and "Sub-part K instructors" make a lot of sense to those who know that Sub-part H are the traditional Flight Instructors (CFI) whereas Subpart K instructors are sport pilot instructors. However, some of the audience got lost in the legal-eze of such regulatory references.

When Tevis was asked about overall acceptance of sport pilot, he indicated that approximately 260 people had taken sport pilot written tests, and there are approximately 100 initial sport pilots. FAA expects to have 100 or so designated pilot examiners by September, one year after the rule became active. FAA concluded that participation was pretty good for this very early stage of the new programs.

For a free copy of the FAA Power Point Presentation, go to http://afs600.faa.gov/afs610-Pilot.htm.

FMI http://afs600.faa.gov/AFS610.htm