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2 Answers

Teaching in an LSA

Asked by: 2401 views Flight Instructor, Light Sport Aircraft, Private Pilot

I do understand the basics of medical required while acting as a CFI, but here is one I've not heard an answer to. A CFI (regular CFI, not a Sport CFI) teaching a Private Pilot student in a Light Sport Aircraft, (Sportstar, Skycatcher, Remos, CT, Tecnam, etc), does he need a Medical Certificate?  The catch in my mind is that a medical is not required to act as Pic in the LSA (using Drivers License)

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2 Answers



  1. Pilotgil on Nov 01, 2018

    No medical certificate is required by the CFI to teach in an LSA. Just make sure you have a valid drivers’s licence for the LSA; however, the student will need a 3rd Class or a current Basic Med AND held a previous class medical sometime after July 14, 2006 AND possess a U.S. driver’s license by the checkride.

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  2. Mark Kolber on Nov 03, 2018

    I think you will find your answer in 61.123(c). Generally speaking, the requirement for medical certificates and the authorization to fly without one, is not based on the certificate one holds. It is based on the pilot privileges one exercises. So, for example, even an ATP needs no medical certificate at all when exercising the “lesser” privileges of a sport pilot.

    Similarly, I’d go out on a (short) limb to say that when the holder of a CFI certificate with an ASE rating is only exercising the privileges of a CFI certificate with a “lesser” sport pilot rating, she only requires the level of medical qualification applicable to sport instructors.

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