I’ve been considering this for a number of years. Light Sport, restrictions and all, suits my mission well -No need to stress over the medical, and I get to take some fairly capable planes into the sky. Travel is secondary and perhaps irrelevant - I’m 180lbs, and my wife is somewhat more, so in addition to a minima useful load beyond us, there are possible CG and balance issues as I understand it.
We don’t seem to have anyone giving lessons truly locally, but that’s fine. Let’s say I’m based near Chambana, IL. So far, available A/C look like this:
- Lots of Evektors
- one school has a Remos GX and Flight Design CTLS
- There’s a single Aeroprakt A22.
The latter is of some interest for me for personal reasons, and also seems a touch slower, but none of them give me pause, really.
I expect to use speed as a tool for enjoying being in the air, not because I’ve any need to quickly get from A to B.
I’ve looked over the generalities of ground school content - it’s not familiar to me already, but I can put in the necessary time and energy to learn it. I’ll be on disability for 4+ weeks soon following a minor surgery, so study time isn’t a problem.
Any instructor and plane will require a bit of a trip, which I’m fine with.
Several schools have caught my eye as at least worth a second look - curious if anyone has insight on any of these folks (or the airports they operate from):
- SRT Aviation Mt Vernon, IL
- CityWings.net Schaumburg, IL
- Jet Access Indianapolis, IN (and others)
- Sport Pilot Chicago Newark, IL
- St Charles Flying Svc St Charles, MO
They are all roughly equidistant from me, save the last one being a bit farther.
Also, how do I interview an instructor, aside from qualifications? I’m going in with minimal enough knowledge that I don’t know at least some of the obvious questions to ask.
For what it’s worth, LSA is a goal unto itself for my mission - no intention to use as a stepping stone to PPL, etc.
Thanks