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What planes can you fly without a pilot’s license?

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Re: What planes can you fly without a pilot’s license?

#91

Post by 8note »

dylan604 wrote: post #84
Invictus0 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your kid discovered a crashed rental car and the people that operated the rental car didn't know it was missing gave your kid free time to ride a rental car just like it, would you let your kid go? Amazing how people today let fear get in the way of enjoying life

If you want to compare an apple to a kumquat, then sure, your analogy makes sense, maybe, if you really try and want it to. Otherwise, I hope the rest of your day is less upsetting.

I think it finds the break in the suggestion, which is that the answer is "it depends"

Which means the decider is something outside of the proposed situation

Re: What planes can you fly without a pilot’s license?

#92

Post by AdrianB1 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #50
quasarj wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flying into a cloud is a big risk? They're everywhere!

Here in Germany, if you don't have an IFR (instrument flight rules) rating, you're not allowed to fly through clouds, because if you're not trained in using avionics or the plane doesn't have them in the first place, you are very very likely to kill yourself, your passengers and people on the ground. If you encounter unexpected clouds, you are supposed to GTFO... if you try to fly "under" the clouds, you may end up f…

Here in Romania the instructors usually teach you a bit about flying only with instruments, exactly because it is so dangerous if you don't know how to do it. All the pilots that I know personally (statistically irelevant, I agree) with more than 75-100 hours have at least a few hours of flying with training blinders that allow them to see the instruments, but not outside the cockpit.

That means most pilots around here live a lot longer than 180 seconds if they meet a cloud, the 2 big problems are mountains and landings (if the cloud base is very low), there is no good training for that except things like AirNav Pro on a tablet with the right maps and 3D view but that is a measure of last resort, not a training.

But in the end I fully agree that if you are not trained, stay away from clouds and fog. I am just pointing the difference between being trained and being licensed, in Romania you cannot get licensed for IFR on planes up to 600 kg, nor are you allowed to fly at night (other EU countries allows it).

Re: What planes can you fly without a pilot’s license?

#93

Post by AdrianB1 »

psunavy03 wrote: post #45
quasarj wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flying into a cloud is a big risk? They're everywhere!

When you aren't instrument-qualified, get disoriented, and fly yourself into the ground, then yes, they are a big risk for the weekend warrior lawyers and doctors who never get an instrument rating.

What is qualified: trained or certified? There is a small difference between the 2 in terms of knowledge and experience, but a big one in legalities.

Re: What planes can you fly without a pilot’s license?

#94

Post by AdrianB1 »

grepfru_it wrote: post #72
quasarj wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flying into a cloud is a big risk? They're everywhere!

One of the biggest risks of flying into a cloud while vfr is that you do not know what is on the other side when you come out. Could very well experience a mid-air collision, even though the odds seem low it’s a lot more probable than you think

That is the least concern. Spatial disorientation is the reason.

Re: What planes can you fly without a pilot’s license?

#95

Post by AdrianB1 »

itsyaboi wrote: post #47
dghughes wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of mentioning daytime in the article had me worried. Also there is no flying in an aerodrome and hopefully the person knows what an aerodrome is. Or near hospitals since many are restricted for helicopter air ambulances. Or anywhere near anything military. I briefly took some flying lessons and there is an enormous amount to know both the flying part and the ground school part.

Aerodrome? Is this a euro-specific rule?

No, in Europe you are not allowed to fly anything without a license.

Re: What planes can you fly without a pilot’s license?

#96

Post by [deleted] »

grepfru_it wrote: post #73

Unpopular opinion but technically correct answer: you can fly any plane without a pilots license. In fact I just saw a Quora question with this exact question and the answer came from a 60 year old pilot that has been flying without a license for 30 years. If you never fly out of a major airport where an FAA inspector can ramp check you, who will ever find out? Please don’t do this.

[deleted]

Re: What planes can you fly without a pilot’s license?

#97

Post by AdrianB1 »

rlpb wrote: post #13
b8 wrote: post #9

The Mirocopter SCH-2A meets the FAA requirements so it doesn't require a pilots license. You can buy it for $35k on Ebay [0]. It's cheaper than most cars and gas wise (5 gallons for 50min for flight time) would make it about the same cost as commuting to work in a car. 0. https://www.ebay.com/itm/354879150317

The article doesn't really cover it but being able to fly without a license probably isn't the same as flying near a controlled (ie. towered) airport. If want to commute and aren't in the middle of nowhere you might find that flying in your local airspace does require a radio license in practice at least. Source: I am a licensed pilot but not familiar with flying in the US.

You can bet that people that fly these planes without a license also don't spend the time and money to get a radio license; that automatically prevents from flying to or from a towered airport.

These ultra-light planes are practically big toys that you can fly over some empty field and relatively low altitudes. Powered parachutes also fall in this category.

Re: What planes can you fly without a pilot’s license?

#98

Post by krisoft »

dylan604 wrote: post #57
pixelatedindex wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were a kid, I’d be livid to not get free flights. I always wanted to fly - I think the first time I ever got on a plane was in high school and I remember being glued to the window almost the whole time. Incidentally, I just learned about ultralights not needing a license last week and there are some really affordable ones for like 16K: http://www.uflyit.com/aerolite103main.htm There are more manufacturers here:…

If your kid discovered a crashed something and the people that operated the something didn't know it was missing gave your kid free time to fly/ride a thing just like it, would you let your kid go? But of course the kid was upset.

> and the people that operated the something didn't know it was missing

This element is not present in the story as it is described.

They were not aware of where the ultralight was, but they were aware that it was missing. It could have been stolen, or it could have been landed at some other location.

Re: What planes can you fly without a pilot’s license?

#100

Post by digi59404 »

userbinator wrote: post #78
grepfru_it wrote: post #73

Unpopular opinion but technically correct answer: you can fly any plane without a pilots license. In fact I just saw a Quora question with this exact question and the answer came from a 60 year old pilot that has been flying without a license for 30 years. If you never fly out of a major airport where an FAA inspector can ramp check you, who will ever find out? Please don’t do this.

and the answer came from a 60 year old pilot that has been flying without a license for 30 years. More precisely, someone who claims to be one online.

FWIW, I’ve personally met someone who this exact scenario applied too. His father flew planes in WW2 then came back and flew crop dusters. As a kid his father would let him fly and taught him how. He never went and got his FAA License. He just flew small planes like Cessnas to/from private areas. No one ever bothered him or asked him for his license.
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