home brewed nav lights

[marksires 484]

Breezy is not a certified airplane.  And you can't take a Cessna wing and put it on a Bonanza and call it an experimental.  Breezy works because using an existing wing still fit it within the 51% rule.

This standard hasn't changed much, which is a good thing.

If you've never dealt with the paperwork side, then you don't have any idea what it requires.  My work requires me to deal regularly with the FDA and other agencies as we do work for pharmaceutical companies.  The cost of the paperwork far exceeds the cost of producing the product/service.  I will say that compared to most agencies, the FAA has minimal paperwork, and a much more cooperative attitude - think that over for a minute!

For an aircraft to be certified as an amateur built experimental, the build has to have performed 51% of the work.  On the Piper forum I hang out on, there is at least 2 or 3 inquiries a year on how to make their Piper experimental so they can get the advantages.  The answer is you can't.  There are other experimental categories you can get it recertified in, but they are so restrictive no one in their right mind would use them.

If you've never had to work/fly in the certified world, you have no idea how wonderful the amateur built experimental world is.  A simple gas strut to open/hold open the door to my Cherokee?  $250 + $85 labor to install.  Form 337 filled out and filed, STC and instructions for continued airworthiness (5 pages) added to the aircrafts pilot operating handbook.

Mark

 

I used to fly with a guy that had his Cessna 150 registered as an experimental so your wrong about not being able to move from certified to experimental. A more recent example would be Draco.

As I indicated, there are other experimental categories that can be used. However, if your 'guy' is flying his experimental 150 around as freely as an AB experimental, he is almost certainly violating his operating limitations.  The testing category is very restrictive - limited range, no passengers, etc.  The exhibition category is also restrictive - to and from events, and exhibition only at the event.  Unless otherwise indicated in the operating limits, no passengers.  Folks like EAA with Aluminum Overcast (B17), Collins foundation with their fleet of warbirds, and others have to jump through a bunch of paperwork hoops to get the privilege of flying passengers on those exhibition experimental aircraft.

Mark

[Cloud Dancer 69]

Breezy is not a certified airplane.  And you can't take a Cessna wing and put it on a Bonanza and call it an experimental.  Breezy works because using an existing wing still fit it within the 51% rule.

This standard hasn't changed much, which is a good thing.

If you've never dealt with the paperwork side, then you don't have any idea what it requires.  My work requires me to deal regularly with the FDA and other agencies as we do work for pharmaceutical companies.  The cost of the paperwork far exceeds the cost of producing the product/service.  I will say that compared to most agencies, the FAA has minimal paperwork, and a much more cooperative attitude - think that over for a minute!

For an aircraft to be certified as an amateur built experimental, the build has to have performed 51% of the work.  On the Piper forum I hang out on, there is at least 2 or 3 inquiries a year on how to make their Piper experimental so they can get the advantages.  The answer is you can't.  There are other experimental categories you can get it recertified in, but they are so restrictive no one in their right mind would use them.

If you've never had to work/fly in the certified world, you have no idea how wonderful the amateur built experimental world is.  A simple gas strut to open/hold open the door to my Cherokee?  $250 + $85 labor to install.  Form 337 filled out and filed, STC and instructions for continued airworthiness (5 pages) added to the aircrafts pilot operating handbook.

Mark

 

I used to fly with a guy that had his Cessna 150 registered as an experimental so your wrong about not being able to move from certified to experimental. A more recent example would be Draco.

As I indicated, there are other experimental categories that can be used. However, if your 'guy' is flying his experimental 150 around as freely as an AB experimental, he is almost certainly violating his operating limitations.  The testing category is very restrictive - limited range, no passengers, etc.  The exhibition category is also restrictive - to and from events, and exhibition only at the event.  Unless otherwise indicated in the operating limits, no passengers.  Folks like EAA with Aluminum Overcast (B17), Collins foundation with their fleet of warbirds, and others have to jump through a bunch of paperwork hoops to get the privilege of flying passengers on those exhibition experimental aircraft.

Mark

For those reading this thread; here's a link for the official requirements to manufacture your own certified lights or any other part of an airplane. Link here. https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/design_approvals/media/CPI_guide.pdf

I thought I'd put this subject to an end. It's a 105 page read but it's clear to me that anyone wanting to get a new product to market has a path. It only makes sense since every airplane and part on those airplanes started out at some point as a non certified part or airplane. Many of those small shops I built certified government parts at had the owner of the company doing it all. No diploma hanging on their walls saying they were certified designers or inspectors etc. They were hands on build it guys like most of us in the experimental world. In other words, it's not magic.