How This Course Is Organized

This course mirrors the Sport Pilot Airplane Airman Certification Standards (ACS) and the structure of the FAA knowledge test. Here is how we'll move through it and why the order matters.

1. Privileges and limitations — what a sport pilot may and may not do. Everything else hangs off these rules, so we tackle them first.
2. Light-sport aircraft — the precise definition of the machines you'll fly.
3. Medical eligibility — the driver's-license standard, BasicMed, and the third-class medical compared.
4. Airspace — the classes of airspace, what each requires, and which ones a sport pilot can use.
5. Weather and weather minimums — reading conditions and the VFR cloud-clearance rules.
6. Aerodynamics — how the airplane actually flies.
7. Systems, performance, and aeromedical factors — the airplane and the pilot's body.
8. Cross-country, navigation, and the transition to LSA — putting it together.

• Read every lesson body in full. The numbers and regulation citations are exactly what the test asks about.
• Note the bolded terms. These are the vocabulary the FAA expects you to know cold.
• Take the practice questions after each major section, then the 25-question final exam.
• Cross-reference the regs. Whenever you see a citation like 14 CFR 91.155, that is a real, lookup-able rule. Familiarity with the regulation numbers pays off on oral exams.

A current FAR/AIM, the POH for your training aircraft, a sectional chart, and time with a CFI for the flight portion. Ground school gets you the knowledge; an instructor signs you off to fly and recommends you for the test.

Let's begin with the heart of the certificate: privileges and limitations.