Light Sport time can be used for PP time...

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From AvWeb:
FAA: Light Sport Time Can Go Toward Private Cert. (Sometimes)
August 7, 2009
By Glenn Pew,
Contributing Editor, Video Editor

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So, can a student pilot apply any flight time he or she logged while training for a sport pilot certificate toward a private pilot certificate? According to a letter from the FAA's Office of the Chief Counsel to aviation journalist Tim Kern, who queried the office, solo sport pilot flight time may only be credited to solo private pilot flight time if the "specific category and class of aircraft are met." Logging instruction time depends on the instructor's credentials. If instruction is received from an instructor who holds only a a sport pilot rating, that instruction may not be credited toward the issuance of a private pilot certificate. However, if the instruction toward a sport pilot certificate is provided by an instructor authorized to provide instruction to both sport pilots and private pilots, that time could "be credited toward the flight training requirements for a corresponding private pilot certificate." There are more details...
According to the letter, "flight time obtained in a certificated aircraft prior to the issuance of a private pilot certificate, regardless of whether that flight time was obtained prior to, or after, the issuance of a sport pilot certificate may be credited toward the flight time requirements for the issuance of the private pilot certificate." Kern has posted the full text of the letter, here. It explains in detail that a sport pilot instructor (SPI) is not qualified to give dual for a private certificate and therefore any instruction given by an SPI is not applicable toward the private.
FAA Letter mentioned above
http://www.121five.com/admin/FeatureArticles/FAA_SP_onesheet.pdf
 
That's correct. Part of the proposed regulatory changes coming out later this year should change that, because flying is flying, and the CFI-SP jumped through the same hoops a CFI-ASEL jumped through, as far as teaching is concerned.

Essentially, if the proposed wording is accepted, an "authorised instructor" will be any CFI. The only restrictions will be on instrument or multi engine training, as they are today.

Also, if you COMPLETE your SP certificate, all that time then counts towards the private, as you are no longer a student pilot, you're rated. It's only if you take dual with a CFI-SP, and then decide to not take the SP checkride but go for the PP checkride that the issue comes up.
 
Let the whining begin, I can hear it know from all the people (pilots) that are against the SP-Rating bitching about this now. Because the sky should be reserved for those that only use their plane for XC transportation.
 
Also, if you COMPLETE your SP certificate, all that time then counts towards the private, as you are no longer a student pilot, you're rated. It's only if you take dual with a CFI-SP, and then decide to not take the SP checkride but go for the PP checkride that the issue comes up.

If you are talking about the proposed rule I agree but if you are talking about as it is now I think the 'Letter" disagrees.

Read around the end of page 2 and the first of page 3.
 
If you are talking about the proposed rule I agree but if you are talking about as it is now I think the 'Letter" disagrees.

Read around the end of page 2 and the first of page 3.

Interesting, and in direct conflict with what an FAA Flight Standards employee at OSH (who I talked to in the learn-to-fly tent) said. His take was that an sport pilot could apply all the dual he'd gotten, even if it was with a CFI-SP, towards a private pilot certificate. Of course a "regular" CFI must provide the additional training required, and all the endorsements, etc. I actually know of someone who received a private certificate in this way.

But that, as a chief counsel opinion, is the final word on the regs as written. Hope the rewrite goes through quickly.
 
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