Thread: Rotax Training Requirements and Your LSA

This is very important.

Everyone needs to read this so you will be informed and not listening to hearsay. Know the rules and be one of the informed. This is something I have been trying to relay for the last 3 years. This is dead on the money.

Rotax Training Requirements and Your LSA

The author is Carol Carpenter of Rainbow Aviation.


http://www.rainbowaviation.com/artic...20training.pdf

100% right on,,I hope everyone reads it

I have seen "experimental" decals on the side of some of our planes at our fly-ins, and I thought we were "special LSA". So with a little research I found following at the EAA site. Helps me understand some the rules. Roger, is there any reason not to go to the experimental rating so we can do some of our own maintenance?? And what is "preventative maintenance"? This has probably been discussed before but help>>>>>

What is a Special Light-Sport Aircraft
A special light-sport aircraft (S-LSA) is a factory-built, ready-to-fly aircraft designed and construction accordance with the ASTM consensus standards for light-sport aircraft (LSA).

In addition to recreational flying, S-LSA can be rented and used for flight instruction. They must be maintained and inspected by a certification repairman with an LSA maintenance rating, a standard FAA aircraft maintenance rating, known as an airframe and powerplant (A&P) rating, or at an FAA authorized repair station. Pilots can perform preventive maintenance on S-LSA.

Private owners of these aircraft may change an S-LSA’s airworthiness certificate to experimental light-sport aircraft status (E-LSA). This allows the owner to perform the annual condition inspection after attending a 16-hour course to obtain a light-sport aircraft repairman’s certificate with an inspection rating. However, once an S-LSA is certificated as an E-LSA, it can no longer be used for rental or commercial flight training.

The "experimental" decal is a little misleading isn't it. If you look at your airworthy cert it is pink which means you have a "special airworthy cert". It is typed that way on the pink certificate. GA aircraft have a white certificate. Your preventive maint. is much the same as GA aircraft with a few exceptions. Most of our SLSA maint. is spelled out in our maint manuals from the SLSA Mfg. Where ever it says owner you can do that maint or inspection. If you look at our FD maint. manual it list "Owner" under the engine inspection, but you have to comply with the Rotax maint. manual which says you must have attended a Rotax school. These are only two day schools and very enlightening. I would encourage everyone to go to at least a "Service" class. If you have not attended a class you can not do any maint on the Rotax. Even an A&P must attend a Rotax class to inspect a Rotax and judging from what I have seen come from some A&P's they should have gone long ago. A&P's do attend classes because I have met several. Technically if your A&P did your inspection and did not attend a Rotax school then it is not within its airworthy parameters.
The article I posted is very specific about this. It isn't really any different from GA maint requirements it is only different. We are not a certified aircraft.

You can take your SLSA to the Experimental LSA category, but a glitch in the FAA rules right now prevents you from doing your own maint and you must still use a certified maint individual. The new rule change that was supposed to have already come out says you could do your own maint with the 16 hr. maint class. Legally your SLSA that went to ELSA can go back to SLSA, but because the maint and up keep would be unknown and in question you will not find and Mfg willing to re-issue an SLSA certificate because they would assume all that liability.
I will call Edsel Ford Monday and see why the new rules that were supposed to come out Dec. 13th did not.

If you went to ELSA then you may loose a few bucks on re-sale because it can't be used commercially any longer and the same issue about unknown up keep. If you buy an SLSA which has been maintained by a certified repairman you feel better than if all the maint was done by an untrained individual.

Certainly a lot of this SLSA to ELSA is a personal choice. Just to mention Avemco told me once you put a "E" in front of LSA your insure just shot way up, too. Unknown maint and airworthiness again.

Thanks again for the information and advice. Mel