Sport pilot or private pilot?

[Vance Breese]

I have a sixty two year old friend who wants to fly a gyroplane, is healthy and lives in the Los Angeles megalopolis.
He has no aviation experience other than some time flying with me time and the gyroplane he is interested in is sport pilot legal.
He doesn’t want to fly at night but does want to fly cross country.
I feel he is not likely solo in the minimum number of hours.
He wants to get enough training to minimize the risks.
He feels that a sport pilot rating is much easier to get than a private pilot rating and there is less to learn.
I don’t see that much difference and suggested he go for a private pilot, rotorcraft gyroplane rating.
What say you?

 

[Jim Logajan]

I have a sixty two year old friend who wants to fly a gyroplane, is healthy and lives in the Los Angeles megalopolis.
He has no aviation experience other than some time flying with me time and the gyroplane he is interested in is sport pilot legal.
He doesn’t want to fly at night but does want to fly cross country.
I feel he is not likely solo in the minimum number of hours.
He wants to get enough training to minimize the risks.
He feels that a sport pilot rating is much easier to get than a private pilot rating and there is less to learn.
I don’t see that much difference and suggested he go for a private pilot, rotorcraft gyroplane rating.
What say you?

I don't know if any of the people who have replied actually earned their license initially with a rotorcraft category with gyroplane class rating as either a private pilot or sport pilot. It is not very common to go that route initially. I think most (including myself) who learned in fixed wing or even helicopters do not have the background to give a proper answer as to sport vs. private when it comes to gyroplanes.

I note, for example, that stall recovery instruction is not applicable, nor are hovering maneuvers - two sets of tasks that fixed wing and helicopter pilots allegedly tend to take a bit of extra angst or time to learn. On the other hand, my understanding is that prior airplane experience might tend to cause a gyroplane pilot to incorrectly "unload" the rotors with fatal results. This would be something that would cause airplane pilots to require more training hours to "unlearn" which would skew the observation of those who first earned their license in fixed wing.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Thing is just about all the gyroplanes in existence are LSA legal. Except for some wacky old stuff it is little two seaters. And there ain't a bunch to rent when you go on vacation. The pp does nothing for this guy.

And how many gyroplanes are even equipped for night flying? Might be difficult to complete the night requirements for PP. Yet another reason to stick with sport pilot.