It’s the (homemade) plane, Boss. The (homemade) plane.

So much fear and gnashing of teeth.

Cottage industry for homebuilts in America. Except that it is a little large to be called ‘cottage’. Nearly half of all the aiplanes being built are by enthusiast building their own. The reasons are many, but most hinge around that the certification process for new airplanes is so grotesque that few designs can get through it. Basically, the big companies are selling the same designs that they were selling in the 1950′s, except with a $350,000 price tag. A typical homebuilt kit goes for around $20-60K, depending on what you want. The other reason goes by the saying, “Would you rather fly in an airplane that you labor over yourself for years, verifying that every rivet, nut and bolt was perfect, or one built by Italians that drank wine for lunch and went home at 5:00.” Remember, and amatuer can alwasy do a better job than a professional. The amatuer just has to complete the project ‘someday’. The professional has to make a living.

Flight testing. My plane began life as a set of paper drawings and a rack of steel tubing. As for freaking out about flying it for the first time: 1) you think about that every time you consider cutting a corner…then choose to do it right. Once again, I have no schedule to meet. 2) there should be an extensive testing process already completed before the wheels leave the ground, composed of taxi tests with slowly increasing speeds. When they do leave the ground for the first time, you immediately cut power, land, and inspect the plane to make sure nothing moved. The second flight is once around the airport, land, and check that nothing moved.

In America, you have to fly at least 40hrs within a prescribed area, taking the plane through all expected maneuvers, under all expected loading conditions, BEFORE you are allowed to carry passengers. When done properly, first flights are actually anti-climatic and boring.

First flight deaths. This is a very unfortunate reality that many groups are trying to address. The problem is two-fold. You have new untested airplanes. Any complex system has a high probability of having hidden mistakes. Murphy says so. (And no, having it built in a factory doesn’t help. Reference car recalls from any manufacturer.) The first flight must be flown with the full expectation that something WILL break, and having ample preparation to make the ‘emergency’ a non-event.

The other side is that you have someone who has worked diligently for 3 to 5 years with a single goal. To FLY. They’ve put all their money, all their time, and all their energy into just one thing. Being able to FLY. When the day finally comes they’re excited, proud, and totally unprepared for what awaits them. When Murphy pops up, they’re unable to handle it and the worst happens.

Many are smart, and get lots of remedial training and what’s called ‘transition training’, experience in the same model of aircraft. Some even have someone else with lots of recent experience do their testing for them. Some go halfway, and just do a very slow, purposeful testing program that works up to first flight very gradually. Building up experience while still on the ground. A portion will “kick the tires, and light the fires”. Most of the mishaps occur with the last group; though, Murphy tends to get a few from all of them.

Homebuilts in Europe. There are indeed airplanes being built by individuals in England, France, Switzerland, etc. There is a Delta that set in a museum for a while being readied for flight right now, the last I heard, and I had a visitor from England who is just starting his Delta visit me a few months ago. In Europe, the rules are much more stringent as to the design requirements than they are in America. American culture demands that a fool be allowed to hang himself if he so wishes. I can pretty much do as I please, as long as I fill out the registration paperwork correctly (ie, make sure the bureaucrats can tax me properly). Other cultures are a little more paternal. The tradeoff is that there is a lot more innovation in the US like a lot of the electronic flight controls and instruments coming online, but some of the ‘innovation’ isn’t well considered. For instance, guys bolted wings to a Ford Pinto with sheet metal screws. Two died. In America, we call that cleaning the gene pool.

Using homebuilt airplanes as terrorist weapons. Homebuilts are required to operate under the same or stricter rules as commercially produced airplanes. So they are no more dangerous from that aspect. We could only wish that the fools that like to blow themselves up to ‘make a statement’ would resort to using general aviation aircraft. The extremely reduced payload compared to a 4-door sedan would limit the explosives they could carry, limiting the damage they could cause. A misguided youth tried to make a statement by flying a stolen Cessna 152 into a tall office building in Florida. His death resulted in a broken window and several hours of cleanup. He didn’t even start a fire.

Crazy nuts flying over you in their garage contraptions. All general aviation aircraft are discourage from flying over heavily populated areas. Common sense enforces that dictate (there’s no where to make an emergency landing a downtown area). Take a ride in a small plane sometime. Cruise at around 2000ft. You’ll be AMAZED at how empty of civilization the world is, and just about any general aviation aircraft can be landed and stopped in less than 800ft (the length of two football fields) by a decent pilot. The only way you should damage anything substantial on the ground is if you try (and that situation, I covered above.)

Anybody feel better now? 8*)

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When I lived in Sheffield, a neighbour of mine was a widow. It transpired that her late husband who was an engineer and ex RAF man had built his own plane in his back garden. Apparently the garage had to be demolished to get the thing out, when it was finished. So it is certainly legally possible to build one in the UK. Unfortunately he was killed on his maiden solo flight. Scary stuff home made planes.

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David,

I’m just saying that I’ve never really heard of anybody doing it in the UK. I can imagine there’s somebody somewhere cobbling bits of aluminium together, but it seems there’s a little cottage industry in America. I’m interested whether it’s legislature or space which prevents us from doing this kind of thing over here.

Steve,

I have problems with DIYers and their cars, but DIYers and planes….perish the thought. I presume they have to pass a stringent set of safety measures before you’re allowed to fly, or does that breach some 1st amendment right?

Robin,

I know…it looks fantastic does it not?

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The thing that always freaked me out about building my own airplane is that sooner or later I’d have to take that first flight. Imagine sitting there, realizing that there’s nothing more to do but climb in, fire it up, and take off. And then thinking about all the times you cut a corner, or were a little confused about what to exactly, or whatever. It’s not the kind of thing you can pay someone else to do either. I suppose that’s what teenage boys are for

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