Proposed Changes to ELSA Classification?

Following ELSA?

Does anyone have any further information or opinions about what may or may not happen regarding the (not out in the forefront, like the 3rd Class/Driver's License issue) proposed changes that would severely limit the utility of the ELSA registration? My interest is in those aircraft that have been manufactured as SLSA and then re-registered as a E-LSA. There are some distinct advantages in this classification, mainly that an owner can take a maintenance course to become qualified to do all their maintenance, including annual condition inspections, as well as make minor changes. I think this could be done with a factory made Kitfox SLSA as well as other well known one such as the Vans RV-12. Yesterday a friend at our airport arrived with a brand new factory made Carbon Cub which he had re-registered as a Experimental Light Sport aircraft. Another question I have is that if the law was changed would all the existing ELSA aircraft be "Grandfathered" or would their usefulness be limited as well? If the rules are too good, it seems like someone will want to change them!

If the law is changed, it would put limits on that classification as follows:

c. Prohibit the carriage of passengers, flight over densely populated areas, and night or instrument flight rules (IFR) operations in the following:
(1) Experimental LSA aircraft that formerly held a special LSA airworthiness certificate;

If you want to read more about it there is a good article at:
http://www.psfmagazine.com/2014/03/m...ed-faa-policy/

Skot

This is absolutely the first I have ever heard of this.

The backlash to this change would be enormous. Seeing this article is almost a year old and the content isn't widely known, I doubt it's gone anywhere.

I'm lucky, though I guess. Although my plane is registered E-LSA, it was never S-LSA, so by their verbiage I dodged that bullet.

Skot- thanks for posting this little tidbit! As an SLSA owner contemplating the move to ELSA, I hope a discussion will start leading to more current data.

Placing such onerous restrictions on re-certified factory built SLSA seems so ridiculously far-fetched as to be almost laughable. I don't get it. Why would the FAA even consider such change? What possible benefit(s) can be gained from it?

More importantly, has anyone heard anything further about this? I've searched through the FAA.gov > Aircraft Certification Service Draft Documents for any additional reference to this Policy info but came up empty handed, presumably because the original comment period has expired.

John or Deb? Any DARs or FAA LinkedIn folks on board who can check with their resources would be appreciated.

Thanks