I’ve been considering this for a number of years. Light Sport, restrictions and all, suits my mission well -No need to stress over the medical, and I get to take some fairly capable planes into the sky. Travel is secondary and perhaps irrelevant - I’m 180lbs, and my wife is somewhat more, so in addition to a minima useful load beyond us, there are possible CG and balance issues as I understand it.
We don’t seem to have anyone giving lessons truly locally, but that’s fine. Let’s say I’m based near Chambana, IL. So far, available A/C look like this:
- Lots of Evektors
- one school has a Remos GX and Flight Design CTLS
- There’s a single Aeroprakt A22.
The latter is of some interest for me for personal reasons, and also seems a touch slower, but none of them give me pause, really.
I expect to use speed as a tool for enjoying being in the air, not because I’ve any need to quickly get from A to B.
I’ve looked over the generalities of ground school content - it’s not familiar to me already, but I can put in the necessary time and energy to learn it. I’ll be on disability for 4+ weeks soon following a minor surgery, so study time isn’t a problem.
Any instructor and plane will require a bit of a trip, which I’m fine with.
Several schools have caught my eye as at least worth a second look - curious if anyone has insight on any of these folks (or the airports they operate from):
- SRT Aviation Mt Vernon, IL
- CityWings.net Schaumburg, IL
- Jet Access Indianapolis, IN (and others)
- Sport Pilot Chicago Newark, IL
- St Charles Flying Svc St Charles, MO
They are all roughly equidistant from me, save the last one being a bit farther.
Also, how do I interview an instructor, aside from qualifications? I’m going in with minimal enough knowledge that I don’t know at least some of the obvious questions to ask.
For what it’s worth, LSA is a goal unto itself for my mission - no intention to use as a stepping stone to PPL, etc.
Thanks
I’m a CFI and airline pilot. Based on your situation LSA sounds like a good fit for you and it seems like you’ve done your research. In terms of interviewing an instructor it just depends on what you are looking for out of an instructor. If you’re worried about them having a certain personality or teaching style it may require you just paying for a lesson with them. You could maybe start with a ground lesson such as a practice oral exam or something like that. Or you could just go straight into a first flight lesson/discovery flight type of thing and get a feel of them. At no point during your flight training are you forced to continue training with any instructor. The hours you will build during flight training is valuable experience that will count towards your progression as a pilot and towards getting your ratings. If you get 20 hours in and you realize the instructor isn’t a fit for you, then just stop scheduling lessons with them and find someone else. If they’re cordial you could even be direct with them and just ask if they know any other instructors you could fly with because you need to experience a different teaching style. Most people in aviation are great, caring people who want to see others progress and be successful in their flight training.
Thanks, that’s exactly the sort of thing I was looking for - I generally work well with most people, but I know myself well enough to know that there are a handful of folks I might not be quite on the same wavelength with.
Relative to the overall cost of training, an initial lesson or discovery flight seems like a pretty low-cost/low-risk way to get a feel for the people, and also for how they treat their equipment.
When you start, if you have any concerns about your CFI or the flight school as a whole feel free to post here again or DM me directly and I can help point out any red flags.