Building and flying our own aircraft . . .

These privileges are at the very heart of EAA. Will a new FAA policy threaten them?

Victories | Remaining Concern | Act Today | Homebuilding's Value

Everyone who participates in aviation benefits from the efforts of the amateur-building community. Learn more and make your voice heard to protect these valuable activities.

Victories Won … But More To Do
For a period of more than two years, the FAA has expressed concern that some modern-day practices involving prefabrication of aircraft kit components and commercial builder assistance leave too few construction tasks to the amateur builder. The agency says it must more strictly enforce the “51% Rule” — the requirement an amateur builder or group of amateur builders must personally complete a majority, 51% or more, of the aircraft construction tasks.

The FAA on July 15 published in the Federal Register its Official Notice of revised policies for interpretation and enforcement of the amateur-built aircraft regulations. The published terms confirmed two key victories for the many members of the EAA community who have expressed concerns to the FAA:

• The FAA’s proposed policy statement preserves the amateur builder’s privilege to design, build, and fly an aircraft of any airworthy design, without limitations on the aircraft's complexity, power, size, performance, or other specifications.
• The proposed terms also provide for “grandfathering” — that is, the new interpretation and enforcement policy will not disqualify any aircraft kit that the FAA had already placed on its published list of approved amateur-built kit designs.

These protections are good news to the EAAers who’ve rallied to preserve an activity that provides enormous recreational and educational benefits, and that advances the development of all aviation.

However, the EAA community is concerned that, in an attempt to apply more stringent oversight of amateur-built certification, the FAA is proposing a convoluted formula to measure not only the amateur’s overall contribution to construction, but also the proportion of tasks to be completed within two broad categories.

According to the FAA’s proposal …

• at least 20% of total construction tasks must be fabrication done by the amateur;
• at least another 20% of total construction tasks must be assembly done by the amateur; and
• that leaves another 11% of tasks for the amateur to complete from either category, to ensure a total 51% contribution to the project.

Confused? EAAers are expressing their belief that the FAA's newly proposed construction-task categories overcomplicate participants’ compliance requirements. Join us in telling the FAA to keep it simple: Whether performing fabrication or assembly tasks — or the many tasks that are difficult to categorize — we’re building our own airplanes. And we’re deriving educational and recreational benefits as the regulations intended!

Action You Can Take Today (Before Sept. 30, 2008!)
Please take a few minutes to read through the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and other information on this site about the Amateur-Built Category and the 51% Rule. Then join with the EAA community in urging the FAA to preserve the spirit, intent, and enormous innovative potential of the amateur-built regulations.

If you are or have been a participant in amateur-built activities, please write to the FAA and relate your experience.
Tell the FAA …

• how you value the freedom afforded by the Experimental Amateur-Built rules — to dream up, design, build, and fly the aircraft of your vision, without any limits on the complexity, power, size, or performance of the aircraft;
• how your experiences in building an aircraft … even a quick-build kit or with commercial builder assistance … have provided recreational and educational benefits in keeping with the spirit and intent of the amateur-building rules; and
• how difficult, complicated, and impractical the process of designating every construction task as either fabrication or assembly would be.

and

… that you encourage the FAA to preserve the amateur-built regulations and practices that have proven successful for more than 50 years, that have given a huge wealth of innovations and advancements to all of aviation, and that have fostered participation, learning, and enjoyment of personal aviation.

Send your comments by Sept. 30, 2008 to …

e-mail:
miguel.vasconcelos@faa.gov

U.S. Mail:
Miguel L. Vasconcelos
Production and Airworthiness Division
AIR-200, Room 815
800 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, D.C. 20591

fax: 202-267-8850

Why act? Amateur building is a core value to all EAA members.
The Amateur-Built category and the 51% rule were created 55 years ago. In 1953, EAA Founder Paul Poberezny organized a small group of aviation enthusiasts to seize this new regulatory opportunity to build and fly their own aircraft. This small cadre of amateur aircraft builders worked from a few published plans or created designs of their own. No one then envisioned the scope of the amateur built industry in the 21st century.

Today the amateur-built marketplace offers a dizzying array of pre-built assemblies, aircraft kits, “quick-build” kits, and builder assistance services from manufacturers. An entire industry of suppliers, designers, manufacturers, and service providers has grown up around the amateur-building movement and the FAA’s precedent interpretation and enforcement of amateur-built certification.

Amateur-built aircraft are the heart of EAA and the heart of aviation!
It all started with an amateur-built aircraft and two amateur builders named Orville and Wilbur Wright. The Amateur-Built Category, created in 1952, gives amateur builders the freedom to build an aircraft on any complexity, power, or performance, from a powered parachute, to SpaceShip One. Innovations that were pioneered by amateur builders have found their way into private, commercial, and military aircraft. These include:

• Composite materials and construction
• Glass-cockpit instrumentation
• Winglets
• Ballistic recovery systems
• Epoxy adhesives in wood construction
• Vinyl-based coatings for fabric-covered aircraft
• Lightweight engines with high power-to-weight ratios
• Electronic ignition systems
• Spring steel landing gear
• Private spacecraft

The amateur-built movement also stimulated the revitalization and modernization of general aviation’s single-engine marketplace in the 1980s and 1990s … when the traditional industry was in deep decline.

Entire categories of modern recreational aviation are rooted in the amateur-building movement. These include ultralights, powered parachutes, and light-sport aircraft.

Looking ahead, amateur builders are leading the way in developing electric powerplants for general aviation aircraft. If history and the collective experience of EAA’s amateur-building community are any indication, amateur-builders will remain at the leading edge of progress in aviation.