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

Collectively, these aircraft are called ‘amateur-built and experimental’ or ABE
aircraft in this report. In Australia, the term amateur-built was generally used until
Civil Aviation Safety Regulation (CASR) Part 21 was introduced in 1998.
Amateur-built experimental aircraft are built and currently operate under these
regulations.
Australia has two systems for building ABE aircraft. The term amateur-built is
associated with aircraft-built under the Amateur Built Aircraft Approval (ABAA)
legislation, while the term ‘amateur-built experimental’ refers to aircraft-built under
the current United States-style Experimental Certificate legislation. Legislation
covering construction and sale of these aircraft is explored separately in Section 1.3.
Amateur-built experimental aircraft are not to be confused with factory-built
experimental aircraft. Factory-built experimental aircraft are certified aircraft with
after-market modifications. The focus of this report is on amateur-built and
amateur-built experimental aircraft, which are non-factory built.
Presently, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) defines an ABE aircraft as
... an aircraft of which the major portion 2 has been fabricated and assembled
by a person or persons who undertook the construction project solely for their
own education or recreation. (CASA, 2000)
Today, ABE aircraft embody a wide range of aircraft sizes, designs, construction
methods and performance capabilities. They include relatively simple high-wing
designs such as the Clancy Skybaby or Rans S7 (Figure 1), and single-engine lowwing
designs such as the Corby Starlet and Van’s RV-6 (Figure 2), through to large,
high-performance four-seat touring aircraft such as the Lancair IV and Jabiru J430
(Figure 3). In Australia, these aircraft also include amphibious aircraft (Figure 4),
warbird replicas, twin-engine aircraft, composite canard designs 3 such as the Rutan
Long-EZ (Figure 5) and Quickie, and replicas of modern jet fighter aircraft such as
the Grumman F9F Panther (Figure 6).
Some ABE aircraft are designed as ‘one-offs’, whereas other designs are built from
plans, or assembled from pre-fabricated kits. They are constructed from wood,
metal, tube and fabric, and composite materials, and often use a certified aircraft
engine. Automotive engines are sometimes used instead of aircraft engines; these
engines come from a range of manufacturers including Volkswagen, Subaru, Mazda
(Rotary), and Chevrolet.
2 The majority means that at least 51 per cent of the aircraft was built by an amateur.
3 A canard aircraft has the horizontal stabiliser forward of the wing.
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