An Ultralight Beginner

[Buzz]

New to the site and hoping for some insight.....I just began my ultralight lessons. I've been reading everything I can and am getting great, I mean great, instruction from a great instructor. He came highly recommended. I also thought of asking my instructor if he would change and start instructing my for light sport, but wanted to ask if I could up the time. I mean, go down to him and spend more time with him than just an hour flight a week. Any advice would be great, as I said, I'm in the beginning and the last thing I want to do is upset my instructor. info....I am training in a Quicksilver 2 place. 503 dual ignition. Thanks in advance.

Hi-
Because you are new to ultralights and the Sport license, you may find the way the laws have written regarding them to be confusing.

First, as Dana has said, if you are getting training in a 2-place Quicksilver, your instructor can't give you training that you can log towards the Sport license. One can GET logable Sport Pilot instruction in an ELSA they own [Experimental LSA] but one can't GIVE logable instruction in an ELSA [unless it's the student's].

Second, my recommendation is to keep working with him towards the goal of getting a single place ultralight. It will be the least expensive step into flying that you can make. Keep in mind that research has shown 80% of people who start towards an entry level license never get it. Like driving a car, the thrill of learning to fly that will have you driving 90 minutes for instruction will diminish. [Did you ever think the thrill of driving would diminish when you first got your driver's license? I didn't. It did.] The thrill of chasing a license does wear off enough for so many that the time and expense finally doesn't seem worth it to finish the license.

However, you can have a TON of fun flying a single seat ultralight on a beer budget and with a small training commitment required than the Sport License. And you can log a lot of flying experience very inexpensively. You will also be in a better position to understand exactly what adding the Sport license contributes to the flying experience. You may find you decide never to move beyond a single place ultralight after all.

My personal experience is I was so enamored with flying that I got my Private license when I was a junior in high school. I have often said that if ultralights had been around back then, I probably would not have a Private today. I would have put the cost of that into buying an ultralight. Owning and flying one of the single place Quicksilvers has been the most fun I've ever had flying. The people I've met, the places I've landed with it, etc. [I so prefer ultralights over heavier stuff that I owned a small twin engine airplane for business and never even bothered getting checked out in it.]

It's my experience that ultralights are the best return you can have in aviation for the time and money invested. Start there and then decide later if a Sport license is worth the additional time and expense of chasing the license.

One last story. I once laid off 12 years from flying Cessnas. Flew nothing but a 254lb Quicksilver during those years. When I went back to get current again in a 4-place Cessna I found I could make landings many times better than I have ever been able to do so when I was doing a lot of Cessna flying. [The landings were so good that the instructor said there's no way he would have believed I hadn't flown any General Aviation airplane in 12 years.]

I believe someone thinking about a Sport license should seriously consider first being taught to fly an ultralight, then getting one and building flying experience with it. It may actually prove to be the most direct and least expensive path to the Sport license. I do know it will be a very fun one.

My experiences and thoughts.

-Buzz