Amateur-built and experimental aircraft - Australian Transport Safety ...

3.7 Aircraft building cost
Total aircraft cost is a major concern for builders of ABE aircraft. The majority of
respondents recorded values of less than $100,000, and only a small proportion of
respondents spent more than $175,000. Traditionally, plans-build aircraft are the
cheapest to build, and quick-build aircraft are the most expensive (Larsen, 2005;
Fuentes, 2005); this survey supports that contention.
Figure 85: Aircraft build cost
Only two of 63 respondents who built an ABE aircraft using the quick-build method
spent less than $50,000, while 45 of 66 respondents using a plans-build method
spent less than $50,000. There were 19 of 138 respondents using a slow-build
option who spent less than $50,000. Clearly plans-build is the cheapest option. 45
3.8 Second-hand aircraft
Second-hand aircraft purchase involves assessing the quality of an aircraft visually
and in operation, as well as looking for documents to help form an opinion about
how the product has been constructed, flown, and maintained. This can involve
specialist knowledge, so respondents were asked to record which documents they
obtained with their aircraft, and any person or organisation they used to help inspect
the aircraft.
There were 79 people who purchased a second-hand aircraft, and 77 (97.5 per cent)
obtained at least one purchase document. About 93 per cent (74 of 79) of
respondents with second-hand aircraft got help to inspect the aircraft from at least
one person or organisation.
45 χ 2 = 91.60, p < 0.01. Mean and median values are not reported because data were collected in
categories.
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