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

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.
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