Sport pilot X-country applied toward instrument rating?

[Jim Logajan]

As best I can make out from 61.65(d), it seems that a pilot exercising sport pilot privileges should be able to log cross country hours toward an IFR rating, but must, per 61.65(a)(1) have a private pilot certificate when they apply for an instrument rating.

Am I misreading this or missing something and the required IR cross country hours must be flown with at least a private pilot certificate?

 

[Jim Logajan]

You are not misreading this, although you might be missing one small point: you can only count 50+ nm XC's for the IR XC PIC requirement, so if you did any 25+/sub-50 XC's for your Sport Pilot certificate, those won't count for this purpose. But even though you did your solo XC's for Sport Pilot while holding only a Student Pilot certificate, if they included a landing more than 50nm from the original point of departure, those will count towards the IR XC PIC requirement, too.

Thanks for the prompt reply. I actually have a private pilot certificate, which is why I wrote "exercising sport pilot privileges," so your notes on XC distance aren't relevant to me, but will be of value to pilots only having sport pilot certificates who may have future aspirations along those lines.

 

[Jim Logajan]

What do you mean by "exercising sport pilot privileges", are you flying without a medical certificate?

No, but I am trying to cross-check my understanding of the regulations. I've been diagnosed with mild rheumatoid arthritis, which would seem to require an SI if I want to continue flying under private pilot regs: http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org...e/app_process/exam_tech/item43/amd/arthritis/

According to my research it seemed I should be able to fly under sport pilot regs so long as my physician agreed it was safe (last paragraph here: http://www.faa.gov/licenses_certificates/medical_certification/sportpilots/response4/ )

Since a private pilot can fly some pretty fast and big planes, I can see why the same condition would require FAA review for private that they wouldn't require for sport. At least I think that is the case... I can never be sure of these things.

But I eventually decided to not bother - mostly because there is only one LSA airplane for rent within probably 60 miles of me. I'm going to pursue a SI. But I still wanted to verify I understood the answer to the original question I posted, so I asked.

 

[Jim Logajan]

The 50 nm limit applies to everyone, sport or private. Unless you don't plan on pursuing any more certificates.

Yup. Ron was just making sure that if I were a sport pilot, the regs for sport define cross country differently than for private or instrument and I should take note. Actually section 61.1(b)(3) which defines "cross-country time" for Part 61 has got to be one of the longest definitions the FAA has yet managed for a single phrase. It has 7 roman-numerated paragraphs, each of which has 2 to 4 labeled sub-paragraphs!