Newbie stupid questions about restoring a vintage tail dragger

[Sam Buchanan]

I have a few friends who fly two seat airplanes on the SP ticket. I asked them how often do they fly with someone in the other seat. They all told me maybe 1% of the time. If you look over into that seat it is usually empty. The people I know who got the SP certificate did this to be legal to fly their ultralight style airplane. It may be two seat but it is basically an ultralight. This is what the SP ticket was aimed at anyway IMHO. Those whom just wanted to fly to be flying. But we have those whom believe this ticket is a means to transverse this nation in an airplane. I myself do not see it as such. That should be left to a PP. IMHO. SP is for the sport of flying. How I see it.

That is a very narrow view of the Sport Pilot privileges and one that is not grounded in FARs or reality. Tell the many RV-12 (and similar aircraft) pilots who fly their planes all over the country that they are only supposed to be flying around their local airport (the FAA certainly won't tell them that...). Traversing this nation with a Sport Pilot license is a fantastic way to use the certificate and enables many who could no longer gain a Class Three certificate to continue using an aircraft for transportation (often with a a passenger) to far-flung destinations.

An RV-12 is faster than a Cessna 172 and with its glass panel is better equipped than most and is completely Light Sport compliant.