When people talk about "sport" aviation, they're usually referring to flying for fun, not to earn a living. All kinds of pilots fly all kinds of flying machines for the pure joy of flying. This page offers some insight into the sport of flying. Let's begin by looking at the overall landscape of flying.

We are probably all familier with big airplanes, like the Boeng 747, flown by the commercial airlines. This type of flying is called commercial aviation, because its purpose is to make money by moving passengers from place to place. There is a lot of commercial aviation around the world. All kinds of companies fly everything from huge jetliners to small single-engine planes for all kinds of reasons: passsenger travel, freight transport, news coverage, crop dusting, aerial photography, weather forecasting and teaching. Commercially operated aircraft are strictly regulated by the government; both the pilots and the aircraft are certified and fly according to books full of rules.

The next most common type of flying is called "general aviation." General aviation refers to privately owned aircraft being flown for personal transportation, much like the average person uses a family car. There are almost 20,000 privately owned and operated aircraft in the USA. People use these airplanes to go on vacation, travel to business meetings, or even to commute to work! Even general aviation, however, is carefully regulated by the government. Private pilots must be physically fit and licensed and their aircarft certified and inspected regularly.

Lots of people, however, just like to fly, without ever going very far from home. They fly in homebuilt airplanes, balloons, ultralights, paragliders, hang gliders, sailplanes and powered parachutes. Often these activities require no license for either the pilot or the aircraft, which can be simple and inexpensive. These pages tell the story in detail:

• Homebuilt airplanes
• Kitplanes
• Ultralights
• Balloons
• Hang Giders
• Sailplanes
• Powered Parachutes