I have no flight time and am shopping around for flight schools to make a career change into aviation.
I found a school that uses Remos light sport aircraft, and charge significantly less than if I learn on a 172. Furthermore, the test preparation is done thru King Air schools online for all the ratings. The total cost is almost half of most schools.
What, if any disadvantage are there to learning on a remos light sport versus 172? As a guy w no experience in aviation will learning online put me at a disadvantage as an aviator? (earned bachelors degree online so no problem w self study).
I’m not familiar with the lightsport rules, but a friend of mine knows a little bit about them. He has some thoughts…
First, it is not so straight forward when finding an examiner who is willing to do the ride in a lightsport. Make sure the school has an examiner who will do it (or at least knows of one).
Second, you and the examiner must be less than the max payload. You’d be surprised but if I remember right it’s only about 600lbs. So to do a ride (1.5 hours fuel minimum) you’d better be sure on that before finding out later.
Last thought, is if you’re truly career minded, you will need to do comm, then multi, etc… so you’ll have to do accelerated stalls, etc etc. and the Remos really hates to stall, even at flight idle full back pressure. And when it does stall, it’s not fun- generally dips a wing if memory serves correctly…
Also, operating a stick is very different than a yoke. You’ll be doing yourself no favors when finally getting into a multi.
If it were me, I would look for a 152 instead. Maybe split the saving difference but much less headache in the end.
Another comment. Remos’ are not approved to be flown in IMC, which is arguably not that big of a deal since most training is done in VMC. Before I started flying for a regional I think I have about 10 hours of actual IMC—but hey, those 10 hours is 10 hours. Glad I was in an aircraft rated for IMC. Good experience too. I would not want my first IMC experience to be at an airline.
Here’s the deal LSA aircraft can be used for training other than just your Sport Pilot license (provided it’s properly equipped) and as Tory said the school has an examiner who’s cool with it. So my first question for the fight school would be what licenses and ratings can be earned in their actual aircraft. From what I understand most are not equipped for IFR training (which you’ll need) due to the cost and the fact most pilots won’t use it for that type of training/ flying.
Here’s my take. If you’ve never flown before and want to get your feet wet or even earn your Private (if you can) using the Remos why not? It’s a cool little plane and if you can save a few bucks even better. Eventually however if you’re serious about flying for a career you should consider training full time in a professional pilot program where you will be flying Cessna’s and Pipers.
I do not see any issue with getting your private in a Remos, but I would not go any further than that in it. At some point you will need to fly the larger airplanes for your instrument, commercial, etc, but you can easily switch then. I got my private on an airplane that used a stick instead of a yoke, I did not think it was a hard transition at all.
