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Comment by billme | Hacker News Reader

Fun fact: In the some countries (for example the US) you can fly solo passenger ultralight helicopters & airplanes with no training or legal requirements as long as it’s in unregulated airspace. Warning: Doing so likely end up resulting in serious bodily harm, if not death.

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This is true, but it's worth pointing out that the Cesna 172 is not an ultralight.

> Fun fact: In the some countries (for example the US) you can fly solo passenger ultralight helicopters & airplanes with no training or legal requirements as long as it’s in unregulated airspace. Warning: Doing so likely end up resulting in serious bodily harm, if not death.

To use an IT analogy, those are MVPs - minimally-viable aircraft.

Most ultralights don't have closed wings, so there's no structure as the public would understand it. So spend $20,000 and get the best ultralight available if you go this route. I wouldn't take friends or family up in an ultralight since they can't evaluate the risks.

Beyond that, LSA aircraft only require a drivers licence, and look like real airplanes. But no night or IFR operations are allowed. These were supposed to be cheap, but are priced like real airplanes since buyers demand glass panels, etc.

You only need a driver's license to meet the medical requirements, but in the US you still need a sport pilot's license to fly light sport, which is most of a "full" private pilot's license.

You wouldn’t believe the amount of times I had to explain stuff like this to guys who thought the Sport Pilot Certificate would be a breeze.

It’s like 90% of the flight training content of the Private. For some reason, the FAA thought it would also be good to drop the minimum time from 40 hours to 20 hours when they made Sport Pilot. This especially makes no sense because almost no one finishes the Private in 40.

So AOPA, EAA and the LSA manufacturers get old guys hyped on getting a pilot’s license with only 20 hours in the cockpit plus 0 time in the doctor’s office, and they walk into my flight school. Then we have to a conversation about realistic training expectations and how if there’s “no way in hell” you’d get a medical, maybe we should consider if being pilot-in-command of an airplane is really for you.

> if there’s “no way in hell” you’d get a medical, maybe we should consider if being pilot-in-command of an airplane

The FAA medical exam was expanded to evaluate people for neck size/apnea. So for most overweight Americans, seeking a PPL or Sport, they're better off going LSA to avoid paying for a sleep study and risking a medical rejection, which will cause life-long FAA problems.

I would suggest that instructors should figure out if a student confuses flying an airplane with operating a boat. One is pure work, and the other is perceived as pure relaxation.

(Boating used to be equated with drinking beer, but I think it's illegal to operate a boat now while drinking, after some horrific accidents.)

I didn’t know about the neck and weight thing. This was almost 10 years ago though. The guys I talked to usually already had heart problems or were at high risk.

Looks like the FAA got concerned around 2013 and started getting official in 2015. The AME is supposed to do a mandatory BMI calculation, look at a table, record the result, and decide if you need "special processing."

So you (or your students) could check their BMI and get in shape before the exam, or just go the LSA route.

faa.gov: Decision Considerations Disease Protocols Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)

https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/av...

Somebody's personal story:

https://insidethecockpit.com/airline-pilots-with-sleep-apnea

Paramotors seem to combine safety with affordability for fun flying

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