A long time in coming....See www.sportpilot.org-John

Fantastic! I am very thrilled at this.

This is fabulous news. It should lead to an explosion in the number of new aircraft being built, and new pilots being qualified, and that's got to be good for the whole industry.

Great! Only bad news for me is that they did not lower the solo age :(Well, I guess gliders are still the closest I can get to flying on my own in a couple months!

This is great news, I hope we will finally see some of this in europe, although I doubt that they will ever stop their anti GA campaigns over here. I also hope that they will finally drop their anti-depressants regulations. This has been a problem for years, creating dangerous situations because pilots would rather keep silent about their problems than seeking treatment, which would immediatly ground them.

It will certainly create a market for Sport Pilot like aircraft, and hopefully bring the price down a bit. Right now, a Jabiru will set you back about $60k--which is too much considering a used 152 can cost much less. But the 152 doesn't qualify for Sport Pilot.There's other, less expensive aircraft like the Rans--but they are kits.I am hoping to see an enclosed cabin aircraft like the Jabiru comfortable enough for a 3-4 flight in the $20-30k range. I am hoping this new market will create the momentum to drive prices down.For me, the key benefits of Sport Pilot--~I don't have the expense of the FAA medical (which isn't covered by my medical plan). Normal medicals are.~Hopefully, lowered aircraft cost~Safer than Ultralight flying, for pilot and plane, since it's regulated.~With the appropriate endorsement, I am only restricted from Class A airspace, so it makes Sport Pilot a practical means of day flights, such as up to the Grand Canyon or Vegas. Although Sport Pilot is restricted to VFR, here in the desert SW there's only a handful of days where things are VFR only.~And as I gain experience, I can try to become a Sport Pilot CFI. I've been teaching adults for 20 years--and I can't imagine a more enjoyable classroom to teach in.-John

John:"It will certainly create a market for Sport Pilot like aircraft, and hopefully bring the price down a bit. Right now, a Jabiru will set you back about $60k--which is too much considering a used 152 can cost much less. But the 152 doesn't qualify for Sport Pilot."Yes but there's several European sport aircraft, like the British built "Skyboy", priced around $20k new, which meet the new Sport pilot rules, and will now be legal imports."There's other, less expensive aircraft like the Rans--but they are kits."Yes, but the new rules mean that something like a RANS can be commercially manufactured and sold as a light sport - no more 51% homebuilt requirement. That will almost certainly lead to commercial manufacture of the better current homebuilts like Glasairs etc - again probably in the $20k price range.Heck, you could probably make money selling two-seater Affordaplanes below $10k new.Richard

Until the manufacturers don't have to build in legal liability costs in their products, I don't think there will be any drastic reduction of new aircraft pricing. Even the new Sportpilot rule won't protect a manufacturer from being sued and this is why the prices are so crazy.Cheers,JohnBoeing 727/737 & Lockheed C-130/L-100 Mechanichttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/ng_driver.jpg