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

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picture of why people built aircraft, how they built them, and the types of modifications made. Such matters were seen as an operational responsibility, and not as a separate subject of study. Between 1966 and 1979, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) published a series of reports called Briefs of accidents involving amateur homebuilt aircraft in the United States. More in-depth study has been made of ABE aircraft in recent years (Wattanja, 2004, 2006a, 2006b, 2008; NTSB, 2003; Hasselquist & Baker, 1995), but there is a distinct lack of population or sample data on general characteristics of ABE aircraft owners, their aircraft, and related material. This is in spite of the fact that many accident records involving ABE aircraft exist worldwide. Many different opinions are expressed on a range of ABE topics, but it is difficult to gauge how representative of the general ABE community these opinions are. Furthermore, analyses of trends and accidents are difficult in this context. 1.2 Objectives The purpose of this study is to describe the nature and safety of amateur-built experimental aircraft in Australia. This study is divided into two parts, published as two separate reports: • Part 1 (this report) explores issues that affect ABE aircraft owners when selecting, building, purchasing, testing, designing, operating, and maintaining these aircraft. This involved distributing a survey to owners and builders of VHregistered ABE aircraft. • Part 2 of this study will examine the safety of VH- registered ABE aircraft through analysis of accident data held by the ATSB. The survey results presented in this report will inform the analysis of ABE aircraft safety trends and issues in Part 2 of this study. 1.3 Legislation for ABE aircraft Amateur-built experimental aircraft operating in Australia have been built in accordance with five different pieces of legislation, with two being current as at mid-2009 (Figure 9): • The experimental category under Section 6 of the Air Navigation Regulations 1921 • Air Navigation Order (ANO) 100.18, Ultra Light Aircraft • Air Navigation Order 101.31, Developmental Category • CAR 30, Special Certificate, CASR 21.190, Amateur Built Aircraft Approval, Air Navigation Order and Civil Aviation Order 101.28 • Special Certificate, CASR 21.191 Amateur-built Experimental. - 8 -
Figure 9: ABE aircraft legislation in Australia for G-AU 11 or VH- registered aircraft, 1921 to 2009 12 The early years Prior to the Air Navigation Act 1920 and Air Navigation Regulations 1921, a number of aircraft were built in Australia. At this time, flying was managed by the Commandant of the local Military District, and where necessary, either a member of the police or Army Flying Corps (predecessor to the Royal Australian Air Force) would be called upon to inspect the soundness of the aircraft (K. Meggs, personal communication, 3 September 2008). Experimental aircraft - Air Navigation Regulations 1921 From 1921 onwards, Regulation 6 of the Air Navigation Regulations 1921, provided the legal basis for experimental aircraft. 13 There were about 70 types of aircraft built by individuals between 1920 and 1939, including the Clancy Skybaby, Heath Parasol and Flying Flea (K. Meggs, personal communication, 3 September 2008). The experimental system was managed through the Department of Defence. Aircraft could be flown within 3 miles of an aerodrome under a Permit to Fly and did not need to be registered. This provided an opportunity for people to develop, test, and improve aircraft without the need for extensive regulatory oversight. This category was intended as a transition step to certification, however, in many instances these aircraft were flown for long periods of time without ever being registered. This practice continued until 1979 when the Department of Transport introduced Airworthiness Instruction 3‐5, requiring ABE aircraft to be entered onto 11 Australia did not have its own civil aircraft register until 1928, and Commonwealth aircraft were given G- registrations followed by a prefix to designate the country. Australian aircraft registrations started with G-AU. For example, Blanch’s ABE aircraft built between 1923 and 1928 was registered as G-AUES. 12 Note this does not include legislation covering aircraft registered with Recreational Aviation Australia (RA-Aus). Operation of these aircraft is governed by the Civil Aviation Order 95. 13 Established in Statutory Rule No 33 of 1921. - 9 -
Page 1: ATSB TRANSPORT SAFETY REPORT Aviati
Page 4 and 5: Published by: Australian Transport
Page 6 and 7: 3.2.6 Type of flying performed in A
Page 8 and 9: THE AUSTRALIAN TRANSPORT SAFETY BUR
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Page 12 and 13: GAS General Aviation Survey GAAS Ge
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Page 18 and 19: comparison to ABE aircraft. 4 For e
Page 22 and 23: the Australian civil aircraft regis
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Page 26 and 27: One of the great sticking points fo
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Page 32 and 33: 1.6 Aims 1.7 Scope The aims of this
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Page 36 and 37: Maintenance, cost, age and comments
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Page 44 and 45: 3.2 Respondents 3.2.1 Age The ABE a
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Page 54 and 55: Year of design The year of design,
Page 56 and 57: Source: Falco Builders Newsletter D
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Figure 46: Rating of the ability to
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Figure 48: Number of aircraft built
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According to build hours data for a
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Table 6: Aircraft modifications wit
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engine, fuel system, avionics, hydr
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challenging (χ 2 = 2.89, p = 0.09,
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associated with building an aircraf
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people built aircraft by 41 differe
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Figure 68: Rating of other aircraft
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Figure 71: Rating of regulator as a
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flew more or much more than usual.
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Figure 75: Mean rating of test flig
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LAMEs as a test flight resource Fig
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another pilot, 46 of 268 used a qua
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Emergency procedures. Two people ma
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3.7 Aircraft building cost Total ai
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Figure 87: Nice-to-have documents o
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Where people undertook transition t
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Table 8: Private versus all other s
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Table 13: Transition training by se
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must be endorsed under CAO 40.1.0 t
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3.9.5 When transition training was
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As pointed out in An Overview of Hu
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Amateur-built and experimental airc
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Figure 98: Engine maintenance multi
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About half the respondents spent be
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Cessna Aircraft Company. (2009). Sk
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National Transport Safety Bureau. (
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APPENDIX B: SURVEY - 118 -
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APPENDIX C: TABLES OF RESPONSES Bui
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Table 27: Maiden flight by transiti
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Amateur-built and experimental airc
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