I can't answer how the FAA keeps up with Sport Pilots, but the FAA stats are here:
https://www.faa.gov/headquartersoffices/apl/2021-civil-airmen-statistics
Do you have to do a flight review every two years?
I do, but is that input to the pilot registry? If I miss a BFR, do scarlet-clad demons draw a line through my name on the Sacred Scrolls? Then carefully rub the line out if I take a BFR a month later?
I *have* missed BFRs in the past, and wonder if my name gets turned on and off in the pilot list accordingly. Seems too darn efficient and on-the-ball for our favorite Government agency.
Thanks much for the spreadsheet. Wonder if the data is collected from during the same GA Activity Survey that the aircraft registry estimates are based on?
If so, it's subject to the same issues. Let's assume we have three pilots, Tom, Dick, and Harry, who all receive the FAA activity survey that requests their active/inactive status and the number of hours they flew in the previous year.
Tom replies that he's active, and flew 100 hours in 2021.
Dick hasn't flown for twenty years, and replies that he's inactive
Harry doesn't reply at all, as he is dead, and his heirs and assigns don't bother to turn in the survey in his behalf.
The FAA survey is only based on responses *received*. So the Survey assumes that 50% of the pilots in the FAA registry are active...when the actual number is 33%.
Still curious: If I fall off the roof while putting up Hogmanay lights and break my neck, how does my name get removed from the FAA pilot roster?
Ron Wanttaja