He's doing WHAT!!??

[animal]

David, all you have to do is fly off 5 hours in a non-populated area and then make a log entry that the modification did not alter the flight characteristics negatively. That's it. No form, no notification to the FAA or anyone.....not even a phone call.

Ken What if you are not the original builder? like say I buy a Gyro already built and has it's full airworthyness cert.Experimental of course but say I want to put a bigger engine on it or say I was to buy it would out the engine. what what be involved with that?
and would i have to have an A&P do the work? or can an A&P just check over and sign off my work? what are the Rules on that?

thanks I know you guess can tell me what the rules would be on that.
reason I ask is i have found a few really good deals,but they both have Hirth engines on them,and i want subaru powered.

Tim H.

 

[rehler]

A&Ps are never required for Experimental aircraft, but you do need to get a Repairman's Certificate to work on that specific experimental aircraft. Just the log book entry per Ken J.s post.

 

[KenSandyEggo]

Other Ken, can a new owner get a repairman's certificate for an experimental they didn't build? I don't think so. Anyone can legally work on an experimental, but an A&P or the original builder with the repairman's certificate for that particular experimental has to sign off the annual inspection I'm pretty sure. I think that if the original builder died or moved to Karjakistan, one would have to have an A&P sign off the annual inspection. There is some new stuff in the Sport Pilot regs where I think one can take a course and then be able to work on their plane, but I'm not up on that stuff. That may be the way to go. One would never need an A&P to sign off anything, including an engine change, just the annual inspection if the person with the repairman's certificate is not available. You can have the village idiot overhaul your engine if you want.......and I believe some of us have.

 

[GyroChuck]

Repairmans Cert.

Repairmans Cert.

Ken J. is correct.

Only the original builder of a homebuilt experimental, who has applied for and recieved a repairmans certificate for that particular aircraft, or an A&P may perform the conditional inspection each year.

As far as taking a certified aircraft and making it an experimental. Will NOT give you the same freedom to fly as one might have with an experimental homebuilt.

I tried checking the FAR's (CFR's part ?) but could not find the correct part so I'm going from memory here with a little help from Tom M. There are 6 different classes of experimental aircraft. Production, Limited, Exibition, Homebuilt and I can't remember the other two.

All of them have restrictions, except homebuilt, on when and how you can fly them. One of the classes you have to notify the FAA before each flight. Another class may only be flown to or from an airshow. For several of the classes you may not take a passenger with you.

A Sport Pilot repaiman will not help. A certificated aircraft being flown as a LSA is still a certificated aircraft. And will need to be maintained according to the rules pertaining to certificated aircraft.

I think Ken is better off leaving the J2 as a certified aircraft. That is if he wante to be able to fly where and with whom he wants.

 

[KenSandyEggo]

"A Sport Pilot repaiman will not help. A certificated aircraft being flown as a LSA is still a certificated aircraft. And will need to be maintained according to the rules pertaining to certificated aircraft."

Does that apply to Tim's (Animal) case, where he buys an experimental gyro? Is there any way he can get to sign off the inspections if he flies under the Sport Pilot classification? Then can he get a repairman's (LSA type) blessing? He probably has to do what we originally said, but maybe there's some way under the new LSA rules.

This is going way off into far left-field, but let's say I take delivery of my J-2 and completely tear it down into it's smallest components, lay them on the floor and take some photos of it completely dis-assembled. I start to put it back together, but with some modifications, like adding instruments, instrument lighting, additional strobes, a non-TSOd fuel-flow meter and oil separator, change one mag to an Electroair ignition system and replace the carb with a non-TSOd Airflow Performance FI system and start putting it back together with good photo-documents. I wonder if I could get a DAR to sign it off now as a regular 51% home-built, or would I be gambling after doing all those mods and not get it signed off? Hopefully Tom will read this and comment.

 

[GyroChuck]

Tom did not know this discussion was going on because it's buried in the for sale thread. Talk about thread hijacking! maybe he'll check here now.

Ken, for what you propose I'd say no you can't. But I'm not the expert. Shoot off an email to Tom with your question.

As to Tim and LSA repairmans cert. This goes into a lot of what if's. And I only remember so much off the top of my head. www.sportpilot.org has a lot of answers.

As I understand the rule. Tim's machine is already experimental. But because of the weight falls under the LSA pilot rules. At this point I don't believe he can go backward to license it as LSA/Experimental. Plus there are only about 2 LSA DAR's at the present time.

The LSA/Experimental is for 3 types of aircraft. Fat 2-place or single place ultralights transitioning to ELSA. And a kit version of a SLSA(Factory built). And Kit built aircraft that do not meet the experimental amateur-built rules (e.g. a 90% complete kit)
https://www.sportpilot.org/faq/Experimental%20Light-Sport%20Aircraft%20FAQs.html#TopOfPage

Before I go on too far and put my foot in my mouth. I think Tim should also send off an email to Tom. Tom might have a better way to accomplish what Tim needs.

 

[KenSandyEggo]

I sent a copy of my post to Tom already.

 

[KenSandyEggo]

"......he has this gay A&P mechanic......"

Shows how much you know, Oh Water-Logged One. He's bi-sexual. Said he used to be "tri-sexual." That's where you'll "try" anything once.

 

[GyroChuck]

Ken, get a reply back from Tom yet?

 

[lanichol]

Ken,


Just curious on the refurb? After working a 12 hr shift, you should have 12 hrs still left in the day.

I was interested in your opinion on the differences between the RAF head with the magic grommet, and the sport head.