Q: I was more than a little annoyed last year when I found out my plane exceeded the new ultralight weight restrictions. Then recently I read about a guy who flew 193 miles in a lawn chair. How could he get away with that when my Aeronca Champion remains stuck in the garage?
— HASSLED IN HARRISBURG
A: Dear Hassled — We’re sorry about your dormant Champ, but as for Kent Couch, the pilot of the makeshift one-seater at left, he broke no laws. It comes down to a basic tenet of FAA regs: As long as the only life endangered by what and where you’re flying is your own, “the government doesn’t really care what you do,” explains Ron Wagner, manager of field relations for the Experimental Aircraft Association. If Couch had crashed, the mess would have been minimal: He drifted solo; he was careful to stay well below the new 254-pound restrictions; and he steered clear of controlled airspace such as that above airports and the Mall of America. Hence, no ticket from the sky police. Perhaps you want to talk to your neighborhood helium dealer?
Your other option is to spring for a sport-pilot license. Debuting
as part of the 2004 sport pilot rule affecting 255-to-1,430 pounders like yours, the license requires a minimum of 20 flight hours, costs about $3,000 and takes around three months to procure, though ambitious students have been known to squeeze it into a couple of weeks. It’s still a fraction of the cost and time involved in securing a traditional pilot’s license. Maybe you’d even consider upgrading to one of the cool new sport-plane models unveiled at the recent Oshkosh air show. Cessna has one that features a grown-up Cessna-style LCD instrument panel and 100-horsepower four-cylinder engine capable of zipping you along at 118 knots. That should help your balloon envy.
To have your wacky aviation-related questions answered, e-mail Amanda Prischak at .
