This week the FAA published a long-awaited rule that will make transition training and other specialized instruction easier in experimental, primary, and limited category aircraft.
The rule, entitled Public Aircraft Logging of Flight Time, Training in Certain Aircraft Holding Special Airworthiness Certificates, and Flight Instructor Privileges, makes several changes to Parts 61 and 91 of the regulations. The rule was proposed in the summer of last year and EAA submitted comments alongside Warbirds of America..
The rule codifies the final resolution to a legal situation that arose three years ago that briefly made it impossible to pay an instructor to train in one’s own aircraft. The FAA rectified this situation at the time by requiring Letters of Deviation Authority (LODAs) for pilots or instructors in experimental aircraft, and an exemption held by EAA for limited category warbirds.
The LODA requirement was eliminated by legislation in December 2022, however the fix had not been officially adopted into FAA regulations until this final rule. Additionally, the legislation did not address training in limited and primary category aircraft. This rule allows compensated flight training in limited category aircraft in a similar manner to experimental aircraft and restores the ability of primary category aircraft to be used in flight training operations.
Flight training involving the compensation of both the aircraft and instructor, i.e. a flight school or flight training experience offered to the public for a fee, has historically carried additional requirements in both experimental and limited category aircraft. This rulemaking, however, makes approvals for these operations more streamlined and creates more opportunities for this safety-enhancing training to occur.
Notably, the rule allows instructors with experimental aircraft to offer training under a LODA for endorsements, primary training toward a sport pilot certificate in certain cases, and re-enables experimental light-sport aircraft (E-LSA) to be used in compensated training. These changes were championed by EAA over almost a decade of advocacy.
Under previous rules, a person receiving transition training under a LODA would need to have all necessary endorsements first. For example, a person building a tailwheel experimental aircraft with no tailwheel endorsement could not receive the endorsement with a transition training operation. Instead, they would first need to get the endorsement elsewhere. Under the new rule and upcoming supporting policy, a person with a “specific need” to receive the training, such as building or purchasing a similar type, can receive the endorsement in an experimental aircraft under a transition training LODA.
The new rule adds important training avenues in some of the lightest aircraft in the community. The 2004 light-sport rule envisioned that all training toward the operation of Part 103 ultralight vehicles, previously conducted under exemptions, would eventually transition to special light sport aircraft (S-LSA). Therefore, the regulators at the time added a specific rule that E-LSA, many of which were aircraft previously operated under these training exemptions, could not be used for any compensated training after 2010. Unfortunately, the ultralight and “lightplane” training market remains underserved. Therefore, EAA successfully pushed for the prohibition on E-LSA training to be repealed in this rulemaking.
In a similar vein, the rule and follow-on LODA policy will allow for experimental aircraft weighing less than 650 pounds empty and with a VH of less than 87 knots to be used for training toward a sport pilot certificate in a commercial flight training operation. Training opportunities in very light fixed-wing, powered parachute, and weight-shift control aircraft are minimal in many parts of the country, and this change aims to address that. There had already been a precedent for allowing experimental gyroplanes to be used for training in a similarly sparse training market.
Under this change, a flight training operation with a properly issued LODA may offer training toward the operation of an ultralight vehicle, including student solo, and may offer an upgrade path to a sport pilot certificate, all while using an E-LSA or other experimental aircraft to provide the training.
There are several other issues that EAA is still working to address in this rule change, most notably the ability of multiple trainees to fly in large multicrew warbirds and cycle through a crew station on a single flight. Overall, however, this rule resolves many issues with specialized training and is a milestone in a long advocacy effort by EAA to address training in homebuilts, light-sport aircraft, and ultralights.
The rule becomes effective on December 2. An advisory circular further explaining the rule and detailing the application process for a LODA will be issued in the coming months.
