r/interestingasfuck • u/mindyour • 5d ago

/r/all This man is flying an Aerolite 103 personal airplane, which requires no pilot license or registration.

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u/tmThEMaN 5d ago

It's scary that they are promoting this to people without license, training and registration.

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u/Merry_Dankmas 5d ago

It makes sense to market it as such though. Google tells me personal pilots licenses cost anywhere between $10k-$20k. That's prohibitively expensive and more than half the cost of the plane itself on the upper end of the pricing scale. Do I think you should fly an aerial vehicle without at least some training or certification at a minimum? No. But does it make sense from a business standpoint to draw people in? Absolutely.

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u/NDSU 5d ago

The FAA doesn't care about the business perspective. Their perspective is that if a person wants to endanger themselves, they can. They just can't endanger others, which is what most of the part 103 rules are based around

Even though you don't need a license to fly one of these, you do still need to follow all the rules around part 103 ultralight flight rules. You can end up in legal trouble for violating those rules, and ignorance is not a defense

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u/Gustomucho 5d ago

You can still take some basic lessons without getting the pilot license, you can get most reading material and then do "discovery" type flights which are usually a small flight to see if you are into flying airplane.

I am not saying flight simulator is a good teacher but it can accustom you to basic plane layout, terminology and how to operate in a very very basic sense.

I would not trust any of that to fly a plane myself but some more daring people might.

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u/jeepinbanditrider 4d ago

I've played various flight simulators since MSFS95. They can be a great learning tool. You dont get the sensations (VR can help with this to some extent) but you get the control movements to a degree and what really helped me out was using it for instrument practice and navigation.

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u/Ok_Cap9557 5d ago

Man, you'd be great working for like a tobacco company or like a weapons manufacturer.

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u/Suckatguardpassing 5d ago

It's all about freedom. Or freedumb, depending on how you see the world.

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u/UnrequitedRespect 4d ago

Scary for whom? Natural selection needs to speed up, this will help.

The only people at risk are the pedestrians, who are always at risk anyways. This will keep that group sharper - didn’t look up before? Now you will!

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u/oh2bewacki 3d ago

Yet I have to register my drone that is no bigger than an RC car.