“Cheat” in what way?”
An FAA medical is very simple: No heart conditions, good eye sight, good hearing, and few other key ingredients that are not hard to achieve, like not be on certain medications. Under the Sport license using the driver’s license there are no changes to the requirements. Same list.
So, if the two licenses have the same medical requirements, then why does one have an FAA medical certificate required and the other does not?
Simple. People that cannot get an FAA medical and know they have a disqualifying medical condition fly under the Sport regulations illegally. I personally can name a number of them. One guy had cataracts so bad he could barely drive. We had to turn him in but he had been flying for several years before that. One guy had a heart attack. Didn’t tell the FAA then moved to Sport where he didn’t have to. Other guys don’t want to complete the requirements to get a pilot’s license because of the medical issue but then fly at night or more than 25 miles from their home airport without the instructor certifications.
It’s all about rigging the system to cheat the medical.
The whole point of using the Driver’s License criteria is the logic that says that if you are medically safe to drive a vehicle weighing 3,000 to 26,000 lbs and carrying up to 15 people while closing head on with other vehicles at a combined speed of 120 mph and passing within 6 feet of each other, then you are probably safe to pilot yourself and one other person in an aircraft weighing no more that 1320 lbs and traveling at 120 kts.
If you have a heart attack while driving a full sized van with 10 or more pax on a two lane road with other traffic then you are far more dangerous than having that same heart attack while tooling around the patch in a J-3.
You said that “we had to turn him in...”. Who is we? IOW, from what frame of reference are you addressing this issue? Medical examiner?, Flight instructor?
Since I’ve asked, just to be fair, I hold a Comm, SEL, Rotorcraft-Helicopter and Instrument-Airplane ticket. I also have a US Navy Fixed Wing & Helicopter Instrument Rating. I also had a triple bypass 10 years ago, after which my cardiologist cleared me to return to work, “chopping wood, digging ditches and everything”.
While this is obviously NOT the same as passing an FAA Second Class Medical it does indicate that I was capable of resuming normal life, including driving the above mentioned vehicles.
Yes, there are a few cheaters using the Sport Pilot designation. There are also cheaters flying Bonanzas, driving while drunk, half asleep or texting. However, one assumption of the Sport Pilot rating is that most pilots are neither suicidal nor homicidal. That “...either a 3rd class FAA medical certificate or a current and valid U.S. driver’s license (serves) as evidence of medical eligibility (provided the individual’s most recent application for an FAA medical certificate was not denied, revoked, suspended or withdrawn).”