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

Aircraft associations as a builder resource
There are two major aircraft associations in Australia for amateur aircraft builders,
the SAAA and RA-Aus. Broadly speaking a number of smaller groups exist to
assist people with building their aircraft including the Sport Aircraft Operations
Group and the Sport Aircraft Builders Club.
Figure 70 records the rating of aircraft associations as a build resource. Two-thirds
of people found aircraft associations helpful, very helpful or most helpful. About a
third of people found aircraft associations less helpful, least helpful or not
applicable.
Figure 70: Rating of aircraft associations
A number of comments were made about assistance from the SAAA. Comments
like ‘SAAA do an excellent job in building assistance’ and ‘the building fraternity,
SAAA, and flying club provide mentoring regarding building, flying, and passing
on of good knowledge.’ Another person wrote ‘I built my aircraft under the Builder
Assistance Program (SAAA). Each stage inspection was carried out by a LAME…’
while another person wrote ‘the SAAA and their special programs were invaluable
in completing the aircraft and establishing a test flight regime….’ One person made
a comment about how the SAAA program works by saying:
… [it] has greatly helped to maintain construction quality control by peer group
pressure, building on previous knowledge and using tried and proven ideas.
Respondents to the survey also recorded assistance from a number of overseas
aircraft associations, and specialised associations such as aerobatic groups and
associations.
Regulator as a builder resource
The rating of how helpful aviation regulators were as a builder resource is found in
Figure 71. This graph is largely the reverse of most other building resources, with
the majority of people rating it as not applicable, least helpful, or less helpful. On
the most helpful end of the distribution, one person even named a particular
employee of the regulator as a most helpful resource. Clearly, the primary role of
the regulator is to develop and enforce safety standards.
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