It’s seemed like a long few months from the announcement at EAA AirVenture 2025 of new MOSAIC rules that will greatly expand the world for sport pilots and will, in time, allow manufacturers a new avenue to building exciting new models without the need for expensive FAA Part 23 certification.
That’s next summer. But for now, as of October 22, 2025, the pilot portion of MOSAIC goes into effect, with the immediate result that those flying as Sport Pilots (as well as those flying under Sport Pilot privileges) will have a much broader range of aircraft available to them.
From the original LSA limitations — 1320-pound max weight for landplanes, 120-knot cruise, etc. — the new regulations permit them to fly any single-engine aircraft with a clean stall speed (VS1) of 59 knots (calibrated) or less, four-or-fewer seats (though they can only carry two people, including the pilot), and a maximum level flight speed of 250 knots or less.
That’s quite the step up from the previous LSA limitations. Even better news: MOSAIC includes most Van’s RV models. Under these regulations, the RV-12 is obviously included, since it met the previous, more restrictive LSA rules.
Among our current production kits, all variations of the RV-7/7A, RV-8/8A, and RV-9/9A have VS1 stall speeds below the limit, while the RV-10 and RV-14/14A are just above the limit. Among our legacy RVs, the RV-3, RV-4, and RV-6/6A all land inside the MOSAIC rules, so Sport Pilots can enjoy them as well. It’s expected the RV-15 will also be well within the new MOSAIC Sport Pilot limit.
“It’s exciting that so many RVs are available to be flown as a Sport Pilot,” says Rian Johnson, Van’s head of design engineering. “It’s beyond the expectation that we had in the early phases of MOSAIC.”
Indeed, early iterations of MOSAIC were proposing an upper limit of 54 knots VS1, which would have excluded the RV-7 and RV-8 series — there are more than 3,600 of these airplanes flying, roughly a third of the RV fleet and even by themselves a notable proportion of the entire homebuilt world.
Looking forward, the second half of the MOSAIC program will launch at EAA AirVenture 2026, enabling changes in what a Light Sport Aircraft is. (Spoiler alert: The RV-10 and RV-14 both meet the broader definition of MOSAIC aircraft, though they would still not be flyable by Sport Pilots or those flying under Sport Pilot rules.) For now, though, current Sport Pilots and other pilots wishing to fly under the Sport Pilot rules have something of a Christmas in October.
