Does the Medical Matter?

I have great interest in flying as a sport pilot someday, since there will come a time when the flying I do will not necessitate a third-class medical. Some friends, even pilots at our local airport, have seen media reports about Sport Pilot and remain skeptical. How do I explain that this is safe flying despite the lack of a formal FAA medical certificate?

Sport Pilot medical certification aspects were thoroughly reviewed and debated prior to the rule's approval in 2004. It's important to note that the tiny percentage of aviation accidents due to medical incapacitation is almost exactly the same for pilots who require medical certificates as for pilots in operations where it is not required, such as gliders, balloons and ultralights. There remains, however, some confusion about what medical limitations exist for sport pilots.

Just as pilot certification is a stepladder or building-block system for the required certificates or endorsements, so is medical certification. Using Sport Pilot regulations, the medical minimums are those required for your valid U.S. driver's license (this varies from state to state). Flying as a private pilot, a step up the ladder, requires at least a third-class medical, while active air transport pilots require a first-class medical.

This system also works in reverse. You may still hold an ATP rating but may now hold only a third-class medical certificate instead of a first-class, so you could only operate under the limitations of the third-class certificate, i.e., at the private pilot level. If you are a private pilot but no longer have a valid third-class medical certificate (and have not been denied your most recent renewal), you may "step down" to flying as a sport pilot, provided you meet the medical requirements in your state for a driver's license.

I am a private pilot with a lapsed medical, flying as a sport pilot. If I fly with a friend in a Cessna 172 (not an LSA), how do I log the time? Previously, I logged time as PIC as the sole manipulator of the controls, but now, can I still do so?

You may still log PIC time when you fly in a 172, so long as you are the sole manipulator of the controls. This is allowed by 14 CFR 61.51(e)(1), which states that a pilot may log PIC time at any time they are the sole manipulator of the controls of an aircraft for which they are rated. Since you hold a private pilot certificate with an airplane single engine land (ASEL) rating, this regulation allows you to log PIC time, even though you may not be acting as pilot in command. (The regulation says nothing about who is acting as PIC. It only states that you must be rated in the aircraft, which you are.)

You cannot be pilot in command of the aircraft because 14 CFR 61.315 requires that sport pilots (including pilots who hold higher certificates but are operating at the Sport Pilot level) may only act as PIC of aircraft that meet the definition of a light-sport aircraft, which the 172 does not. Therefore, the other pilot in the aircraft must be able to legally act as PIC for the flight even if he/she never touches the controls. That pilot would be legally responsible for the safe conduct of the flight, as required by 14 CFR 91.3.

For more information on Sport Pilot, go to EAA's Sport Pilot website at www.sportpilot.org__. EAA, which also hosts the annual EAA AirVenture fly-in at Oshkosh, provides in-depth information on the website, as well as a Sport Pilot hotline and complete membership services for all aviation enthusiasts. Call 800/564-6322 for membership information.7