By Budd Davisson, EAA 22483
This piece originally ran in the September 2020 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
EAA has unintentionally made deciding which airplane to buy much more complicated. It used to be that the purchase of an airplane for the average non-homebuilder pilot was simple — airplanes of the Piper-Cessna-Beech persuasion dominated. However, courtesy of EAA, there is another player in the what-airplane-do-I-buy game: the experimental amateur-built aircraft, or E-AB (read that as “homebuilt”). While it’s not known exactly how many E-ABs are flying, just the fact that there are more than 11,000 RVs alone flying says that experimental aircraft are now much more than what some general aviation pilots used to see as those “toy airplanes that someone built in their garage.” When it comes time for anyone in aviation to buy an airplane, E-ABs are contenders. And there are good reasons for that.
Within the amateur-built category, there are airplanes that, while still at cruise power, can outrun type-certified general aviation turbine aircraft. How about 335 mph at 24,000 feet (Lancair IV-P)? Or how about a little two-place aircraft that uses 4 gallons of fuel per hour, exudes lots of character, hearkens back to the early days of aviation, and yet, on its best day, most of the cars below are running away from it (Pietenpol). The range of types available is incredible, and they are constantly popping up for sale on Trade-A-Plane, Barnstormers.com, or airport bulletin boards. Some at very tempting prices. However, there are two words in the category title that make buying those airplanes decidedly different than buying Wichita spam cans. Those words are “experimental” and “amateur.”
Those words don’t mean better or worse. They just mean different. If you’re coming from a general aviation background where all of the aircraft are type-certified, some aspects of the amateur-built breed must be understood before either deciding on the design to be bought or writing a check. Essentially, you are part of a new category of airplane owners, those who are thinking about becoming the second owner of an amateur-built aircraft. Let’s call them non-builder owners. NBOs for short.
First, Define the Mission
Whether buying an E-AB or the newest Wichita product, the first step is always to define what it is you want to do with the airplane. This usually comes down to two basic choices: cross-country treks or Sunday morning breakfast runs. The next decision to be made is whether you’ll be logging those hours alone or you’ll want to include friends and family. In other words, will the airplane be one-, two-, or four-place? The ability to satisfy those exact needs is where the E-AB category shines because all three configurations are readily available.
The seating decision often centers on the role the family will play in the flying to be done. While FAA research shows that four-place airplanes, type-certified or otherwise, are seldom flown with all four seats occupied, an argument could be made that it makes some sense to buy the airplane that scratches the fun flying itch and rent pure utility, when it’s needed. However, airplanes for every purpose can be found under the E-AB banner.
Fitting the Airplane to the Pilot, and Fitting That Combination to the Airport
A defining characteristic of many of the E-AB aircraft is that they are generally a little smaller than normal type-certified airplanes — but not all. Some are actually the same size or bigger — an RV-10 cockpit, for instance, is significantly bigger than almost any general aviation (GA) single-engine aircraft. Regardless, the pilot has to give some consideration to how size might limit his or her choices, a factor that seldom figures into flying type-certified aircraft. The pilot also has to evaluate the airplane in terms of the airport where it will be based.
- Height and Leg Length. Almost universally, E-AB aircraft, regardless of type or purpose, will accommodate a 6-foot pilot. However, as the height goes past that, say to 6 feet, 3 inches, the aircraft available decrease in numbers. Sometimes it’s the leg length that is the problem, not height. The effect of the inseam length becomes critical as it goes past 34 inches because where the knee occurs in that length can make it difficult-to-impossible to get the pilot’s knees under the instrument panel. So, if you’re close to that height, try the airplane out before writing a check.
- Weight. Depending on the airplane, the CG envelope may become a limiting factor, especially for pilots in the 230 pound and up category in tandem airplanes or those that carry the fuel in the nose due to the CG shifting aft during fuel burn.
- Runway Surface, Length, and Width. Some E-AB aircraft are not suitable for use on unimproved, grass, or rough runways because of the small size of their tires, their landing gear configuration, or their touchdown speeds. Runway length will be a factor for some of the faster aircraft, which makes clear approaches critical. Runway width becomes a problem for some taildraggers when it gets to be less than 35-40 feet because of the lack of visibility.
- Geographic Location and Airport Altitude. Temperature and altitude can work against some E-AB aircraft because density altitude greatly degrades their performance and increases their groundspeed on touchdown. A 2,500-foot runway located in Flagstaff, Arizona, in the summer (7,100 feet MSL), for instance, is much shorter than the same runway in Metropolitan, New Jersey (200 feet MSL), on the same day.
Insurance Considerations
The insurance market for experimental airplanes is continually changing. Some companies get out of the market while many others change their requirements. This is most noticeable in high-performance aircraft and in some of the taildraggers. In some high-performance aircraft, like the Lancair IV, the insurance companies are requiring specific training and a signoff by designated examiners. In some taildraggers, notably the higher-performance ones like the Pitts, some are raising the overall total tailwheel time requirement from 50 hours to 100-plus hours, and the training time required ranges from five to 25 hours of CFI time in type. Also, student pilots wanting to get into E-ABs may find themselves uninsurable. So, check with your insurance provider. If the airplane has a type club, there’s a high probability it has already worked out some sort of insurance arrangement unique to its airplane.
Kitbuilt and Scratchbuilt: The Differences When Buying
Although kitbuilt E-ABs greatly outnumber scratchbuilt ones, there are still lots of the latter being offered for sale because they’ve been built for many decades. The differences between the two can be enormous in some cases, not so much in others.
The biggest difference in all E-AB aircraft, kitbuilt or not, and type-certified aircraft is that there is no FAA established quality control system watching over the building process. There is, however, an FAA final inspection before the aircraft is flown, which will weed out those with serious deficiencies. So, homebuilt aircraft can vary wildly in quality from airplane to airplane. It should be noted that within the kitbuilt aircraft, especially the quick-build kits, they have closed in on the quality control of type-certified aircraft manufacturing. However, this only extends to the parts and subcomponents. Although, almost all kit manufacturers produce their parts following type-certified standards to one degree or another, they have no control over how well the individual builder will assemble the parts, install the engine and electrical systems, rig it for flight, etc.
Scratchbuilt aircraft have a much higher degree of builder involvement in every single part, regardless of how small that part may be, so the craftsmanship can vary wildly from airplane to airplane within the same type. There is no across the board standard, however, that says a kit airplane is always better than a scratchbuilt or that a type-certified airplane is better than all homebuilts. In E-ABs, it all comes down to the builders, the craftsmanship and technical understanding they bring to the project, and their willingness to seek help when needed. By the way, it’s quite common for an E-AB to exhibit far better craftsmanship than a type-certified airplane, but that’s not guaranteed. A close inspection before buying is an absolute necessity. And remember, because the airplane wasn’t built from a kit, replacement parts may not be available.
Build Quality: Doing the Inspection
Doing what we all call the prebuy inspection for a normal type-certified GA airplane isn’t actually an official inspection. For that reason, the mechanic or individual doing the inspection must know the airplane really well because some E-AB designs involve aspects typical A&P or A&P/IA mechanics seldom see. An example of that would be a Long-EZ. A builder of the same type being purchased would be ideal for doing the exam. Regardless, the buyer and the mechanic/inspector should develop a carefully written list of things to be verified. This is an area where a type club, assuming there is one for the aircraft in question, can help. Club members can suggest qualified examiners and help draw up a prebuy checklist that brings the important points of that particular type to the fore. The local FBO mechanic is not likely going to know all of those important points on all E-ABs and possibly not even on something as mechanically straight forward as an RV.
On scratchbuilt aircraft, where every component is hand made by the builder, the scrutiny is going to extend to things a normal mechanic may or may not be sensitive to. This includes items like looking for clinched rivets, bad welds, hardware store bolts, automotive hoses, etc. Also, they should be alerted to watch for any basic modifications to the design that the original designer had nothing to do with (giant engines, lengthened fuselages, different sizes of control surfaces, shortened or lengthened wings, etc.). For this reason, it’s never a great idea to buy an E-AB that is significantly modified from the original design. For most, there’s no way of knowing how well engineered those modifications are. For every modification seen, there may be others you can’t see.
By the way, where low flight time on an airframe is usually considered to be a good thing, this is not necessarily true for E-ABs. Problems in experimental aircraft most often surface in the first 50-100 hours. So, 500 hours on an E-AB is a good thing. That means it’s a reliable, good-flying airplane or it wouldn’t have accrued that much flight time. That kind of flight time is an unspoken recommendation, although the more time it has accrued in a reasonable time, say three years, means more than the same amount of time built up over decades.
Age Is a Very Real Thing
It’s hard to believe but, as a formal organization, EAA is 67 years old this year (founded 1953). Crazy! Homebuilt designs were being built right from the beginning. For instance, the Pietenpol and the Baby Ace date to the late 1920s, the Midget Mustang first flew in 1948, the Stits Playboy first flew in 1952, and the still-popular Wittman Tailwind began flying a year later. Even a more modern aircraft like the Thorp T-18 is 57 years old, and unbelievably, the first Van’s RV is 49 years old. During the last 67 years, tens of thousands of aircraft, both scratchbuilt and kitbuilt, have been put into the air. So, it’s not unusual to see 40-year-old E-ABs listed for sale, many of which have just been discovered sitting in a barn or a forgotten hangar corner. Beware the ancient design with relatively low time. An old airplane with low time means there will be gaps in its logbook where it wasn’t flown for years. The old adage “The only thing harder on an airplane than flying it is not flying it” is absolutely true. This is especially true of the engines and doubly true of Lycomings. They just don’t like to sit around. They get bored, and their cam starts rusting.
The assumption is you’re looking for an airplane to fly and not work on. That being the case, try to focus on airplanes that have either been rebuilt recently (if old) or were built in the last 10 years or so and kept active.
Equipment Differences
Don’t let an abundance, or a lack of, sophisticated cockpit instrumentation figure into your evaluation of the basic quality of the airframe. The same thing goes for paint. Fancy paint can blind a buyer to a multitude of airframe anomalies. At the same time, assuming two similar airframes are being evaluated and they are both good, but one has better paint and/or instrument panel, obviously go for that one. The processes of filling a panel and applying paint are both expensive. That doesn’t, however, make the more exotic of the two a better airplane as long as, in its current state, it will serve your purpose.
Learning to Fly It: Type Clubs, etc.
Flight training in E-ABs has been a sport aviation problem for decades. And it’s likely to be a problem for most E-AB purchasers, almost regardless of their flight background. While the current crop of kitbuilt aircraft, such as the RV series, are incredibly straightforward to fly, they are still different enough from normal GA airplanes that a Cessna or Cherokee pilot should not just jump into them without at least a little training. Of course, this discussion includes an awful lot of unknowns in terms of the pilot’s background and what he or she has been flying. For that reason, it’s nearly impossible to make finite statements about how much training will be needed to make a given pilot comfortable in a given airplane. The real difficulty, however, is finding the right kind of flight training for the type involved.
Flight training availability for mainstream airplanes, like RVs, is extremely easy to find. There are lots of RV instructors out there with a Letter of Deviation Authority that lets them charge both for their time and for their airplane. Van’s Aircraft and most kit manufacturers can put you in touch with instructors who specialize in their airplane. However, pilots can still get flight training in their own homebuilt airplane from an instructor familiar with the type, and the instructor can charge you for his or her time.
When you are considering less popular airplanes that are smaller in number, hopefully there’s a type club for the type. It is rare that a type club doesn’t have a handle on who can properly train its members! Also, instructors are more willing to train in your slightly used airplane, rather than a brand new one just out of its test phases because, in this case, they know the airplane has already flown several hours and they won’t be doing test flights.
Some E-AB aircraft don’t have a specific type club. For instance, the ever-popular Pitts Special falls into that category. However, when an airplane has a population as large as that of the Pitts or the Skybolt, a flight training community has spontaneously formed around them. That won’t be true for something like a Stits Playboy or a Bowers Fly Baby, which, being single-place airplanes, deprive the new owner of the luxury of receiving dual in them. However, for most “orphan” airplanes, there are some type-certified training aircraft available that approximate their handling characteristics. In this case, a Citabria would suffice.
Mechanical Support: Experimental vs. Type-Certified
For type-certified aircraft, the FAA has developed a concise list of mechanical tasks owners can do on their aircraft, which includes things like changing the oil. This is not the case for experimental aircraft. The experimental category offers much wider latitude as to what owners can do to their aircraft. However, just because an owner can legally do the work doesn’t mean that individual should do it. New owners should clearly understand their experience limitations and know when to get an A&P involved. This is especially true when it comes to doing the annual condition inspection, which has to be done by an A&P who doesn’t have to be an IA.
Again, the type clubs are critical for finding qualified mechanics who understand the airplane and can properly address its unique needs. It is well worth forming a relationship with the appropriate type club because, among other things, when you have problems a long way from home, the type club, in combination with local EAA chapters, could offer a solution to your mechanical problems.
Paperwork Gotchas
Early in any negotiations for buying any flying E-AB, examine the logs and pay special attention to verifying whether the various paperwork milestones for E-AB FAA certification have been properly signed off.
Also, in browsing through the logbooks, you’ll get a few hints as to the builder’s attitude toward building. If they are meticulously neat and detailed, chances are that the builder’s craftsmanship and attention to detail in the airframe will be the same. Of course, this isn’t guaranteed, but there is a linkage more often than not.
When reviewing the logs, pay special attention to specific items. The same goes for other required paperwork.
- Is the Phase I flight testing period properly signed off?
- Are all condition inspections signed off properly? Often, they are mistakenly logged as “annuals.” And is a new one due?
- Is the approved airworthiness certificate in the airplane?
- Is the aircraft registration current and accurate?
- Is a copy of its operating limitations on board?
- Check to make sure the N-number it is wearing is actually issued to this airplane.
In Summary
The purchase of any airplane follows the same basic path beginning with establishing its legal status via the logbooks and doing a title search to verify it is lien-free and actually owned by the person selling it. The type club or kit manufacturer is contacted for inspection tips unique to this design and suggestions for flight training solicited. Then the log is studied for proper signoffs that are unique to E-AB registration. The aircraft is inspected/examined, and if a two-place, hopefully the buyer gets a ride in the airplane before exchanging funds. The bill of sale is signed, the insurance carrier is notified, and the airplane is ready to go home, ideally being ferried by a pilot familiar with the type. The best-case scenario is the ferry pilot is also the check-out instructor and the new owner accompanies the ferry pilot on the flight home. If not, the new owner arranges for flight training and, after a few hours of dual-given, the owner and new airplane live happily ever after. Q.E.D.
Budd Davisson, EAA 22483, is an aeronautical engineer, has flown more than 300 different types, and has published four books and more than 4,000 articles. He is also a flight instructor primarily in Pitts/tailwheel aircraft. Visit him on www.AirBum.com.