nuts & bolts
technical counselor
The FAA, the New Homebuilt Policy,
and Your Project
BUDD DAVISSON
The FAA’s discontent over the gro wing commercialization of homebuilt construction and some of the flagrant violations of amateur-built rules
have been well known for years. The FAA’s response to that
problem is now being released in the form of new policy
governing just what does, and does not, constitute a legal,
amateur-built aircraft.
Before anyone gets upset, it should be understood that
the FAA did not come up with this new policy in a vacuum.
EAA and representatives from the homebuilt kit-building
industry were part of a guidance committee, the Amateur-Built Aircraft Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC),
that was formed by the FAA for the expressed purpose of
working together on the formation of the new policy. An
extensive series of meetings resulted in the drafting and
redrafting of several proposals.
No doubt, there will be a teething period during
which unintended consequences and unforeseen
situations will require both new interpretations of and
minor adjustments to the policy. However, the meat of
the subject has been agreed upon and will now become
the law of the land for homebuilders.
The clear goal of the new policy is to make homebuilding
conform more closely to the original intent of the amateur-built certification category. As originally envisioned,
homebuilt aircraft were allowed to be built and flown for “…
educational and recreational…” purposes. Without directly
saying so, the FAA has always held that homebuilding
was not supposed to be a commercial venture that would
allow some to circumvent the need for a type certificate.
Homebuilding was envisioned as an individual toiling away
in a garage or hangar making all, or most, of the aircraft
strictly for his or her own education and enjoyment. At no
time was it expected that a sub-industry aimed at finishing
all or part of an amateur-built aircraft would flourish.
Another goal of the new policy is to eliminate the
possibility that a type-certificated aircraft could be rebuilt
and re-certificated in the experimental amateur-built
category. In fact, the FAA discourages the use of complete
components salvaged from certificated aircraft, for example,
a set of wings from a J- 3 Cub, unless such use still results in
an aircraft on which the owner/builder performed at least
51 percent of the building tasks.
The concept of the builder having done the “major
portion” runs throughout the policy, and “major portion”
is defined as “…having performed greater than 50% of the
fabrication and assembly tasks involved in the construction of
the airplane.”
“Fabrication,” in turn, is defined as “…to perform work
on any material, part, or component, such as layout, bending,
countersinking, straightening, cutting, sewing, gluing/bonding,
lay-up, forming, shaping, trimming, drilling, de-burring,
machining, applying protective coatings, surface preparation
and priming, riveting, welding or heat treating, transforming
the material, part, or component toward or into its finished
state.” In other words, if you had to do virtually anything
to the material, you’ve performed a degree of fabrication
on it. Exactly how much of what you do is put in your
“major portion” column will be partially spelled out in the
kit evaluation form (to be published with the new policy).
Some will be interpreted by the inspector or designated
airworthiness representative who examines your aircraft
just prior to flight.
Understanding where the kit you’re currently building
fits under the new policy may be confusing, and the
ARC recognized that. For that reason, it developed a
scenario-based chart to aid in defining “major portion”
in a number of different scenarios. See Table 1: Proposed
Grandfathering Policy.
For newly developed amateur-built aircraft, a new FAA
National Kit Evaluation Team (NKET) will do all future kit
evaluations, rather than having them reviewed by local
FAA offices as in the past. This new approach is expected to
generate a more evenly applied qualification standard. The
NKET will also aid in the definition of “major portion” with
each kit using a newly developed Form 8000-38. This form
