Two years ago, Paul Hamilton was puttering around Lake Tahoe, California, in a tiny motorized hang glider when he was suddenly overcome with the urge to go farther and faster than the ultralight could carry him. “I wanted to see the sights, go places, take people up and share it with them,” he says.

Soon after that, the Federal Aviation Administration granted Hamilton his wish by creating the simplified sport pilot’s license. Designed to encourage more people to fly, the license slashes the typical flight instruction time in half, from 40 hours to 20 hours, and eliminates the obligatory physical exam. All you need is a valid driver’s license and a few days to learn, and voila, you’re a real pilot.

To date, more than 400 have earned the ticket—including Hamilton, who was one of the first. In fact, the onetime engineer started Hamilton Pilot Training System, a flight and ground training program to teach new sport pilots. Today, his $340 package is available at flight schools across the country.

Some aviation insiders have complained that 20 hours isn’t sufficient training. Rodrigo Ribeiro, who teaches at Aviator Air Center of Grand Prairie, Texas, disagrees. “If the instructor is flying with someone he thought wasn’t capable, he won’t allow them to go by themselves until they’re ready.”  

There are, of course, restrictions. Sport pilots can fly only during daylight hours in clear weather, at an altitude below 10,000 feet, and away from airspace that requires a radio, says Ron Wagner, manager of field relations for the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. And they can fly only sport airplanes that carry two people, weigh under 1,320 pounds (680 pounds less than televangelist Pat Robertson alleges he can leg press), and have a top speed of 138 miles per hour—cruising speed for the average Lamborghini. “I plan on flying during the day anyway,” says Mark Molina, a 54-year-old Florida teacher who received his license a year ago. “And an aircraft with a top end of 138 is plenty fast enough.”

More than 50 airplanes fit the weight and speed restrictions, everything from the old-fashioned Piper Cub, built in the 1930s, to the Gobosh G-700S, the most recent addition to the class, unveiled this summer. Such planes cost between $50,000 and $100,000, with most in the $80,000 to $85,000 range. Conventional light airplanes cost twice as much or more.

“Cessnas, Pipers, and other conventional aircraft tend to be more sedanlike,” says Dan Johnson, chairman of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association. “The light sport aircraft is more like a sports car. It takes off quicker and burns less fuel. It’s livelier in every way.”

Training runs between $2,800 to $3,500, half the price of a private pilot license, and most flight schools offer two ways to get the license. Students can learn at their own pace, over a matter of weeks, or enroll in an intensive program where students fly at least twice a day and receive the license in two weeks. It makes for a great adventure vacation.

The sport pilot license “opens the door for many people to get up in the air and fly,” says Molina, who’s flown from his Florida home to places as far away as Louisiana, Texas and North Carolina. “It lets you travel cross-country and sightsee and just enjoy the feeling.”