I remember the President of the U.S. Ultralight Association asking for AOPA members to call AOPA to find out where they stood on Sport Pilot. I did. They weren't very interested. They told me they wouldn't interfere with what "we" were doing. I found the general tone of the inquiry a bit odd. They later followed-up, and I said the answer I got didn't make any sense.Now, apparently, AOPA owns Sport Pilot. Maybe they got a bad title, but it sure looks they "do" more with it than even EAA. The planes cost $70,000 and up. The pilots seem to be GA guys. EAA wants to push the experimentals into Sport Pilot in various ways. No one can gripe about the pilot cert., but ... There's no basic and low-cost airplane, factory produced using mass production. A full production line based on a reasonable output. Enough scale to lower the costs still further over time. EAA should hire a corporate economist.I guess Sport Pilot was designed to solve the "fat" ultralight problem. That was it, really. The regs had not caught up with the market, and now the regs have gone off on their own.The low end of aviation has always been used aircraft. This is not an entirely desirable place to be, especially if fuel economy is an issue. The simple aircraft, the "fat" ultralights, show no sign of migrating to the Sport Pilot aircraft designations. Does a $70k light sport aircraft really beat a beat-up Cessna 150 for a third the money? Complex equation.We aren't getting the best and brightest of light aviation with Sport Pilot. If there are new ideas, they aren't appearing in AVweb. AOPA has its AOPUlent aviation, and that is all Sport Pilot done wrought.It's all too bad. It's about Washington and Washington Princes, people who say whatever and do what is best for them. It's about money and power and how you can't live your life without money and power trying to control you.I haven't owned or opped for 5 years. I look back with sadness. I look forward with resignation.George Sears
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/features/reader-mail/avmail-oct-10-2005