CFI question

pierre smith · #1 08-12-2007, 06:08 AM

Mornin' guys,
Yesterday at our EAA meeting, I was asked by a couple of heavy ultralight owners (heavy airplanes, not the owners

) who are converting their airplanes to E-LSA's whether or not I'd sign their logbooks for OK to solo.

They mentioned the fact that although they've been flying for several years, once they get their airplanes registered and inspected, they'd be illegal pilots without a signoff. Neither has any pilot license.

What do I do in this case? Can I observe them flying and then sign off? Opinions, advice?

Thanks in advance,
Pierre

gbrasch · #2 08-12-2007, 11:39 AM

I am not up on my regs in the area enough to give you a concrete answer, but my opinion? Heck no, there is no way I would put my certificate on the line in a situation like that.

Mel · #3 08-12-2007, 12:46 PM

Someone will have to sign them off. The operating limitations for E-LSA require that the anyone lower than a recreation pilot must have a logbook endorsement for category, class and make/model.
BTW, if these guys have been flying "heavy ultra-lights" for years, they've already been flying illegally. Only way they could have been legal is as instructor under the "For Instruction Only" waiver. Then they would have had to be flying 2-place machines.

David-aviator · #4 08-12-2007, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pierre smith

.....Neither has any pilot license.

What do I do in this case? Can I observe them flying and then sign off? Opinions, advice?

Thanks in advance,
Pierre

Pierre,

If I understand FAR 61, Subpart J, these gentlemen are not legal to fly their converted E-LSA machines without a sport pilot license. They may use their ultra light experience to fill the aeronautical knowledge requirement to obtain the sport pilot certificate, but I see no provision to continue operating the converted airplanes as ultra light pilots. LSA machines required a light sport license.

There may well be another interpretation of the FAR's on this matter, but absent that information, it would not be a good idea to sign them off.

Mel · #5 08-12-2007, 02:58 PM

To solo a light-sport aircraft, one must have, at the very minimum, a light-sport student pilot certificate with an instructor's endorsement.

osxuser · #6 08-13-2007, 12:18 PM

Yeah, I'm not sure what they are getting at. The heavy ultralite would either have been registered in Experimental Amatuar built, or not registered at all before. If exp they would need a private pilot cert to operate them anyway, therefore another signoff not necessary. I'm guessing they were operating them without any kind of registration before, since no conversion to ELSA would be required, they could just start operating them as such with any other type of registration.