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

Amateur-built and experimental aircraft owners who perform maintenance may
have less time pressures than RPT services where delays in returning aircraft to
service may be a significant cost for airlines. On the other hand, not all people who
own aircraft have a mechanical background. Even where a person does have the
necessary skills to perform maintenance, they may not be approved to do it. For
example, one respondent to the survey in this report owned two identical aircraft,
the first built by the respondent, and the second by another person. Both have the
same engine and propeller, but the owner is only allowed to perform maintenance
on the respondent-built aircraft.
Amateur Built Aircraft Approval aircraft owners with a maintenance authority and
all experimental aircraft owners, can perform some or all of the maintenance on
their aircraft. Based on the idea that not everyone will want to maintain all aspects
of an aircraft, a series of survey questions requested information on who performs
airframe, engine, and avionics. These were multiple response questions with the
possibility of up to four answers for each major component.
3.10.1 Airframe maintenance
Figure 95 records who performed airframe maintenance. There were 407 responses
from 353 respondents, 303 of 407 (85.8 per cent) providing one response, 46 of 407
(13.0 per cent) providing two responses and 4 of 407 (1.1 per cent) providing three
responses. This shows that the respondent most frequently performed airframe
maintenance, followed by a LAME and then another person; this included cobuilders,
other aircraft builders, and the original kit manufacturer.
Figure 95: Airframe maintenance
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