Less Is More

On September 1, the FAA’s new rules implementing the Sport pilot certificate and Light Sport aircraft category (LSA) went into effect. This long-awaited set of regulatory changes is designed to make general aviation’s lower end more affordable and accessible by relaxing rules on pilot training and aircraft certification in exchange for certain specified operational limits. It represents the culmination of many years of work by industry and the FAA, especially the Experimental Aircraft Association and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Asssociation.

Given the current regulatory and political environment, it’s a miracle the new rules ever saw the light of day, much less made it all the way thr...