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WELCOME to the world-wide family of FLY BABY builders.
THIS IS THE 10th printing of the plans document, from which nearly 300 examples have been
completed and flown in the United States and several foreign countries to this date.
The first printing was in February, 1963, and succeeding editions have incorporated minor
corrections and clarifications to the plans as they have been pointed out by the readers.
Photographs of individual variations have been added, along with reprints of SPORT AVIATION
articles, to give potential builders the benefit of others’ experience with their FLY BABIES.
Further safety information was added by pages 8-32 and 8-33 to the Ninth Edition in 1982 and
has been revised for this edition.
In all of these years, there has been no evidence of structural short-comings in the design or a
need to publish “fixes” to correct unsafe conditions. The recommendation for the rear spar carrythrough
reinforcement on Page 9-9 is just that - not a requirement. The original FLY BABY has
flown over 1400 hours since 1960 without it.
Accidents and their causes are discussed in the SPORT AVIATION reprint starting on Page 8-29,
but one more should be mentioned. A new owner bought a used and out-of-license FLY BABY and
had a wing come off in level flight. It turns out that the airplane had been tied outside for a couple
of winters in Florida. Trapped water in the fuselage rotted out some of the lower structure to the
point where the rear spar pins pulled out of the spar carry-through under load. The new owner
had not even inspected the long-unused airplane for condition before flying it. Further, nothing is
known of the adequacy of the original varnish applications or the bottom drains that are specified
in the plans for the specific purpose of avoiding water damage.
This unfortunate event is mentioned here only to emphasize the importance of vigilant
maintenance to any airplane, homebuilt or otherwise, and the need to keep it in good condition -
and legal.
Peter M. Bowers
Seattle, Washington
January 1, 1985
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