---------------------- Forwarded by David Howse/ENG/MEL/Ansett/AU on
29/05/98 13:03 ---------------------------
[EMAIL PROTECTED] on 29/05/98 10:05:02
Please respond to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
cc: (bcc: David Howse/ENG/MEL/Ansett/AU)
Subject: RE: DFLY: Ellison web page
At 05:06 PM 5/28/98 -0500, you wrote:
>On the Ellison site there was a link to an "Interesting court decision
>about homebuilt aircraft which may affect your insurance coverage." The
>gist of this decision was that the builders insurance claim was denied
>because the builder made a modification to his homebuilt after the FAA
>certified the plane and failed to notify the FAA of the change.
>
>This surprised me. I was under the impression that when I get my
>Repairman's Certificate I am free to make modifications to my homebuilt
>without recertifying the plane.
>
I just read the court's decision. Very interesting. I guess I was a
little off base in my previous e-mail.
What the court said was that if you build your plane to look like A, and
then you modify the fuel system to look like B, and then you decide you
don't like it and rip it out, and make it look exactly like A again, that
your aircraft is no longer certified, and thus you are flying illegally.
The very act of making any modification having any "appreciable effect on
the weight, balance, structural strength, reliability, operational
characteristics, or other characteristics affecting the airworthiness of
the product..." (including fuel system changes), renders your airplane no
longer legal, until you have it recertified.
No matter that you have restored it to its original "certified" condition.
Boy, that's a new one on me! Kinda takes the "experimental" out of
experimental aircraft, doesn't it! I predict a flurry of accidental log
omissions.
Dave Morris
Soon to be N55UP
PPSEL, Dragonfly, CAF, EAA
Dragonfly pictures, info, and links at:
http://www.davemorris.com/dave/dfly.html
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It is with great interest that I have been reading of you problems with
your EXPERIMENTAL aircraft requirements.
Here in Australia we don't have experimental homebuilts, all our
dragonfly's
have a full" Certificate Of Airworthiness."
This means that ( to be legal ) if you want to change ANYTHING (even
putting
in a longer dash length bolt or moving a gauge ) we have to get a full
"certified approval "
from a professional aircraft engineer ($$$$$$$$$$$+).
We hope to have a EXPERIMENTAL CATEGORY soon ,
It has taken 28 years to convince the bureaucrats that this is the way to
advance
our aviation world just as it has in " The STATES " . Anyway you all know
this !
DON'T LOOSE SIGHT OF THE BIG PICTURE , you have the best system in the
world to build and fly aircraft , don't let the bureaucrats erode that for
you.
DAVID HOWSE
MK2 VH-NDF
'AUSTRALIAN DRAGONFLY'S'
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