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

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1.6 Aims 1.7 Scope The aims of this report (Part 1) are to: • identify the demographic makeup of ABE owners and builders; • characterise the different types of aircraft selected by ABE aircraft owners; • examine why people chose ABE aircraft; • explore what ABE aircraft owners do when they construct, prepare to fly, operate, and maintain their aircraft, and particularly: – how they modify their aircraft; – how they test fly their aircraft; – whether they undertake formal transition training; and – how they maintain their aircraft; • examine the resources used to construct, test fly, and buy second-hand ABE aircraft. This report focuses on powered amateur-built and experimental aircraft present on the Australian civil aircraft (VH-) register in 2007-2008. Non VH- registered ABE aircraft registered with RA-Aus were not studied in this report. However, the findings of this report may be applicable to non-VH- registered ABE aircraft and their owners. - 20 -
2 METHODOLOGY There is a paucity of information about non-factory amateur-built and experimental (ABE) activities in Australia. This relates to an understanding of which aircraft are being built, the type of people who take up this challenge, and why they do it. To date, these questions have not been comprehensively answered or researched by governments, manufacturers, or aircraft associations in Australia. In order to better understand this part of aviation, a survey was used to collect data on owners and builders of flying VH-registered ABE aircraft in Australia. 2.1 Survey distribution and response The survey was conducted between 1 October 2007 and 31 December 2007. A convenience sample method was used to administer the survey. 18 Three different mediums were available to complete the survey – electronic web survey, electronic portable document file (PDF), 19 and paper. In order to generate the highest possible response rate, amateur-built experimental (ABE) aircraft owners were targeted in three main ways. The paper version of the survey was included as a supplement to the October 2007 issue of the Airsport magazine, the magazine of the Sport Aircraft Association of Australia (SAAA), with a covering letter requesting that readers complete the survey and bring it to the attention of other ABE aircraft owners. At the same time, a letter was sent to owners of ABE aircraft on the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) aircraft register encouraging them to complete the survey either electronically or by paper. The letter provided the web address of the electronic web survey and PDF. Finally, the ATSB promoted the survey at the 2007 SAAA Fly-in at Cowra, NSW. Some people would have received an invitation to complete the survey by letter based on CASA register records and the Airsport supplement. Paper surveys were returned to the ATSB via reply-paid mail. In order to encourage honest and frank reporting and to maintain a confidential response, the survey did not ask for details that might identify the owner of the aircraft, such as name, address, or the aircraft’s VH-registration. There were 436 surveys returned, of which 353 were analysed in this report. About 60 surveys were not analysed as more than 80 per cent of all questions were missing. A handful of surveys were received from people who had not yet completed their aircraft, and these were excluded from the analyses. 2.1.1 Survey response rate During 2008, the total number of ABE aircraft on the VH- and RA-Aus registers in Australia was about 2,610. The VH-register had about 1,165 ABE aircraft, some of which were gliders which were not targeted in this survey. 20 A number aircraft on both the VH- and RA-Aus registers are inactive. The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) estimates that about 18 Convenience sample means that this report used data from people who were willing to complete a survey, rather than being randomly selected. 19 This could be printed and sent to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) as a hard copy. 20 Administered by the Gliding Federation of Australia. - 21 -
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
Page 14 and 15: Collectively, these aircraft are ca
Page 16 and 17: Figure 4: A SeaRey amphibious aircr
Page 18 and 19: comparison to ABE aircraft. 4 For e
Page 20 and 21: picture of why people built aircraf
Page 22 and 23: the Australian civil aircraft regis
Page 24 and 25: Figure 11: Amateur Built Aircraft A
Page 26 and 27: One of the great sticking points fo
Page 28 and 29: Committee (the Committee); committe
Page 30 and 31: The variety of aircraft administere
Page 34 and 35: 18 per cent of aircraft did not fly
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
Page 46 and 47: Figure 18: Type of flying performed
Page 48 and 49: Three survey respondents reported f
Page 50 and 51: 3.2.6 Type of flying performed in A
Page 52 and 53: there are sufficient numbers on the
Page 54 and 55: Year of design The year of design,
Page 56 and 57: Source: Falco Builders Newsletter D
Page 58 and 59: Figure 34: Aircraft flight rules Ci
Page 60 and 61: the wing loading. In this instance,
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Page 68 and 69: In relation to ability to customise
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Page 74 and 75: According to build hours data for a
Page 76 and 77: Table 6: Aircraft modifications wit
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Page 80 and 81: 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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