Sport Pilot Practical Test Standards Alignment

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 61</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No.: FAA-2025-3519; Notice No. 26-01]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2120-AM12</RIN> <SUBJECT>Sport Pilot Practical Test Standards Alignment</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> FAA proposes to revise certain regulations governing airman certification and proposes to incorporate three updated sport pilot practical test standards (PTS) by reference. The proposed update would align the airman testing standards with newly adopted regulatory requirements in the Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC) final rule related to the certification of sport pilots and operation of light-sport category aircraft and update the PTS to improve airman certification standard materials. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Send comments on or before January 7, 2026. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Send comments identified by docket number FAA-2025-3519 using any of the following methods: • <E T="03">Federal eRulemaking Portal:</E> Go to <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> and follow the online instructions for sending your comments electronically. • <E T="03">Mail:</E> Send comments to Docket Operations, M-30; U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Room W12-140, West Building Ground Floor, Washington, DC 20590-0001. • <E T="03">Hand Delivery or Courier:</E> Take comments to Docket Operations in Room W12-140 of the West Building Ground Floor at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. • <E T="03">Fax:</E> Fax comments to Docket Operations at (202) 493-2251. <E T="03">Privacy:</E> In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), FAA solicits comments from the public to inform its rulemaking process better. FAA posts these comments, without edit, including any personal information the commenter provides, to <E T="03">www.regulations.gov,</E> as described in the system of records notice (DOT/ALL-14 FDMS), which can be reviewed at <E T="03">www.dot.gov/privacy.</E> <E T="03">Docket:</E> Background documents or comments received may be read at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> at any time. Follow the online instructions for accessing the docket or go to the Docket Operations in Room W12-140 of the West Building Ground Floor at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Ethan Argenbright, General Aviation and Commercial Division/Testing Standards Section, AFS-810, Federal Aviation Administration, 800 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20591; telephone (405) 954-6404; email <E T="03">ethan.d.argenbright@faa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">List of Abbreviations and Acronyms Frequently Used in This Document </HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">ACS—Airman Certification Standards</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR—Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DOT—Department of Transportation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">FAA—Federal Aviation Administration</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">FR—Federal Register</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">IBR—Incorporation by reference</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">MOSAIC—Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NPRM—Notice of proposed rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">PTS—Practical Test Standards</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">RFA—Regulatory Flexibility Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">U.S.C.—United States Code</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Executive Summary</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Overview of Proposed Rule</HD> FAA proposes to update the current language in three PTS related to the certification of sport pilots and operation of light-sport category aircraft to address a conflict between regulations adopted by the MOSAIC final rule and current language in three sport pilot PTS. These updates would align language in the sport pilot PTS that identifies which aircraft can be used to satisfy practical test and proficiency check requirements under part 61 with the new sport pilot operational limits adopted in the MOSAIC final rule. FAA also proposes to make non-substantive, conforming amendments to update minor terminology inconsistencies throughout these three PTS. Specifically, FAA proposes to update three sport pilot PTS currently listed in § 61.14 (a)(12), (13), and (14): (1) Sport Pilot and Sport Pilot Flight Instructor Rating PTS for Airplane Category; Gyroplane Category, and Glider Category (FAA-S-8081-29A); (2) Sport Pilot and Sport Pilot Flight Instructor Rating PTS for Lighter-Than-Air Category (FAA-S-8081-30A); and (3) Sport Pilot and Sport Pilot Flight Instructor PTS for Powered Parachute Category, Weight-Shift-Control Aircraft Category (FAA-S-8081-31A). The proposed rule would align pilot certification standards in these three PTS with regulatory changes adopted by the MOSAIC final rule by replacing references to “light-sport aircraft” as defined in § 1.1 (General definitions) with “aircraft” to encompass aircraft meeting the performance limits and design requirements for sport pilot operation set forth in new § 61.316. The performance limits and design requirements in § 61.316 expand the aircraft that sport pilots and flight instructors with a sport pilot rating may operate, therefore necessitating revisions to the sport pilot PTS to reflect those expanded aircraft privileges. The proposed changes in the PTS will reduce confusion between “light-sport aircraft” defined in § 1.1, which will be removed upon effectivity of the MOSAIC final rule, and future light-sport category aircraft. This proposal would also align practical test requirements for the certification of pilots and flight instructors with a sport pilot rating seeking to add airplane privileges to their sport pilot certificate. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Statement of the Problem</HD> The MOSAIC final rule, upon effectivity, removes the “light-sport aircraft” term defined in § 1.1 and replaces it with separate eligibility requirements for certification of future light-sport category aircraft and sport pilots. MOSAIC will revise and relocate the substantive performance and design requirements for those aircraft that a sport pilot may operate to new § 61.316. Currently, the aforementioned sport pilot PTS contain the term “light-sport aircraft,” characterizing certain tasks under the definitional performance limitations that will be removed upon effectivity rather than the expanded performance and design requirements in new § 61.316. In addition, MOSAIC will require sport pilots and flight instructors with a sport pilot rating seeking to add an airplane or helicopter privilege to their existing sport pilot certificate or flight instructor certificate to accomplish a practical test under §§ 61.307 and 61.405. These regulatory changes necessitate updated sport pilot PTS to prevent inadvertent conflict between the regulations and the standards set forth in PTS, which could result in conflicting aircraft and testing standards ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> which aircraft the sport pilots and sport pilot flight instructors may use to complete the practical test or proficiency check requirements for certain sport pilot privileges). FAA also proposes to update incorrect terminology or guidance references and other edits to improve the quality of the PTS. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Summary of the Costs and Benefits</HD> FAA expects no costs for the proposed rule to stakeholders and only minimal costs to the agency. FAA does not anticipate new costs to applicants for an initial certificate, rating, or privilege, or to existing airmen, because there are no substantive changes to the testing processes, areas of operation, or elements upon which airmen are currently tested in order to obtain a certificate. FAA will incur some minimal costs to make changes to the PTS and upload the updated versions to its website, but FAA does not anticipate any other costs to the agency because the process by which testing is conducted or the manner in which PTS and Airman Certification Standards (ACS) are currently implemented is not changing. Aligning the PTS with the MOSAIC final rule ensures consistent application of MOSAIC's not quantified benefits, such as increased safety from allowing sport pilots to train, test, and fly with larger and more varied aircraft. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Authority for This Rulemaking</HD> FAA's authority to issue rules on aviation safety is found in Title 49 of the United States Code (U.S.C.) Subtitle I, Section 106, which describes the authority of FAA Administrator. Subtitle VII, Aviation Programs, further describes the scope of FAA's authority. This proposed rulemaking is issued under the authority described in 49 U.S.C. 106(f), which establishes the authority of the Administrator to promulgate and revise regulations, rules, and other official publications related to aviation safety. This proposed rulemaking is promulgated under the authority granted to the Administrator in 49 U.S.C. Subtitle VII, Part A, Subpart iii, Chapter 401, Section 40113 (prescribing general authority of the Administrator of FAA with respect to aviation safety duties and powers to prescribe regulations) and Subpart III, Chapter 447, Sections 44701 (general authority of the Administrator to promote safe flight of civil aircraft in air commerce by prescribing regulations and setting minimum standards for other practices, methods, and procedures necessary for safety in air commerce and national security), 44702 (general authorit ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 67k characters. 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