Two-seat trainers cleared for IMC
Former LSAs from Sling, Van's gain flight school utility
Sling Aircraft North America and Van's Aircraft are both ready to deliver long-serving two-seat trainers that are now available for training flight school students in instrument meteorological conditions with the arrival of FAR Part 22.
Van's arranged a ceremony during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin to deliver the first RV–12iS under Part 22, the company announced on July 26, handing over the factory-built two-seater with Garmin avionics to Tom Snow for use by a Tennessee flight school. Unlike the factory-built RV–12 that Crystal Air already operates in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the new RV–12iS joining the fleet can be used to teach instrument students in IMC, an important element of instrument training that has only recently become possible in a factory built light sport aircraft.
The RV–12iS starts at $246,200, and Van's is not alone in seizing on the newfound capability for established aircraft created by recent regulation changes.
Sling Aircraft announced the IMC-capable Sling 2M is available for August delivery, another former LSA that has gained utility through the new certification pathway.
Sling's rebranding of the two-seat, bubble canopy Next Generation Trainer (introduced in 2019 as an LSA) also takes advantage of the new certification pathway—FAR Part 22—created by the Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification rule announced at AirVenture in 2025, the last piece of which took effect on July 24. In creating Part 22, MOSAIC eliminated the definition and limits of LSA, including the 1,320-pound maximum weight. The FAA now defines the light sport category by stall speed. Certification under Part 22, similar in many ways to the previous LSA approval path, allows manufacturers to secure airworthiness certificates for factory built aircraft on the basis of attested compliance with various ASTM International specifications. The FAA on July 16 accepted a full set of ASTM specifications for light-sport category airplanes, including a specification that allows Part 22 aircraft to be flown in IMC.
As a light-sport category airplane, the Sling 2M will have a higher maximum gross weight of 1,540 pounds, a standard airframe parachute, and the new Garmin Axis avionics (also available on the Van's RV–12iS) as the standard avionics package. Sling priced the aircraft at $339,995; the original NGT model was priced at $202,480 in 2019.
By offering aircraft at a significantly lower cost than comparable new aircraft certified under Part 23, both manufacturers hope the new IMC capability will give established aircraft additional appeal to flight schools, in particular. Private owners have long been able to legally fly aircraft including the RV–12 in IMC, but the aircraft had to have an experimental airworthiness certificate to do that, which prevented flight schools from teaching instrument students in actual conditions in LSA.
"The RV-12iS isn't a new airplane built around MOSAIC Part 22," Cook said. "It's a proven airplane made better by it."
The upgrades are not merely a matter of paperwork. In the case of the RV–12iS, Van's has added a redundant alternator and an upgraded radiator and oil cooler for improved performance in hot climates.
The new IMC capabilities will not extend to sport pilots, however, a point of confusion that continues to prompt calls from members to AOPA's Pilot Information Center. Sport pilot privileges were also updated under MOSAIC in 2025, and are now largely defined by stall speed—but no longer tied to the new light sport category of aircraft, or any other aircraft category. Sport pilots are still not eligible for instrument or multiengine ratings, so a private pilot certificate is required to fly the Jabiru J432 light-sport category twin announced during AirVenture, as well as Sling's forthcoming twin that will also be certified under Part 22 and was also announced at the show.
AOPA Digital Media Managing Editor Jim Moore contributed to this report.
