Experimental Craft Such as Denver’s Not Subject to All FAA Rules
The sleek, fast, technologically advanced plane that carried John Denver to his death Sunday is classified by the Federal Aviation Administration as an “experimental aircraft.”
That’s because, unlike the more familiar Cessnas and Pipers that line the runways at most general aviation airports, Denver’s futuristic Long-EZ aircraft wasn’t built in a factory.
Denver’s plane was home-built--assembled in a garage or a hangar by someone who purchased the plans and did most of the work himself. The work wasn’t done by Denver--officials said he bought the completed plane several days ago from the original owner, who built it.
Some of the standards for home-builts are less stringent than those for factory-production planes.
The designs for factory aircraft must be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. But a home-built craft like the Long-EZ is exempt from FAA certification rules governing stability, control response and minimum stalling speed.
Factory aircraft are assembled by FAA-certified mechanics at an FAA-approved facility, while FAA inspectors monitor the process. Federal rules mandate that at least 51% of the assembly work on a home-built be done by the owner, who seldom is a certified mechanic. Although the assembly of home-builts is often checked by FAA inspectors or other aviation experts, such checks are not mandatory.
Before they can be flown by the public, prototypes of factory planes must be tested, flown and certified by the FAA. When a home-built is completed, the FAA checks the work, but it is the owner-builder who makes the first flight.
With so much less federal oversight, are home-builts still safe?
“Absolutely,” says Dick Knapinski, a spokesman for the Experimental Aircraft Assn. in Oshkosh, Wis.
Such planes, he said Monday, are not designed by amateurs. The designer of the Long-EZ is Burt Rutan, the man who designed the Voyager, the first plane to circumnavigate the globe without refueling.
Knapinski noted that the home-builts are subject to the same annual inspections as the factory planes.
Nonetheless, statistics provided by the Airplane Owners and Pilots Assn. include troubling figures indicating that home-builts--which account for about 19,000 of the 180,000 general aviation aircraft now in service in the United States--aren’t as reliable and as well maintained as the factory planes.
The association said Monday that current records on general aviation aircraft--as opposed to commercial and military aircraft--show that 4.9% of the fatal accidents involving factory planes were the result of mechanical malfunctions and poor maintenance; that figure jumps to 12.8% for home-builts.
National Transportation Safety Board records dating back to 1983 show that the Long-EZ has been involved in 61 accidents, not including Denver’s; 17 of them resulted in deaths, with a total of 21 people killed.
The cause of the crash that killed Denver remains under investigation.
But Knapinski said the plane’s overall reputation “is very good. It uses new components and is made with new composites that make it something beyond the average.”
The Long-EZ--with its forward canard wing instead of a conventional tail and its propeller behind the cockpit instead of in front--is a far stretch from the original home-builts of the 1930s, when a few skilled craftsmen, working from blueprints, built airplanes from scratch in garages and old barns.
Home-builts were a rarity until the 1980s, when product liability laws severely curtailed factory production of light aircraft in the United States. The price of existing aircraft escalated, and pilots began looking elsewhere for planes.
The burgeoning demand led to kit-built planes that, theoretically at least, could be assembled by any competent mechanic. Because the assembly work was done by the purchaser, these home-built planes were relatively inexpensive. And because they kept up with the advanced technology of the era, the home-builts often outperformed the older factory planes.
“They provide more bang for your buck,” said Richard Riley, a pilot who is building his own Long-EZ at Santa Monica Airport.
“This is where the innovation is coming from in the aviation field,” Riley said. “Cessna has been building the same plane for the last 30 years. But each of these planes is something new.”
Riley and several other owners of home-built planes at Santa Monica Airport said they weren’t fazed by the circumstances involving Denver’s death, nor were they fearful of the safety of their own creations.
Standing next to his own half-built EZ, Riley, 37, maintained that when finished, his aircraft will be more reliable than any factory product he could buy on the market.
“I know where every single nut and bolt on this airplane is--because I put them there myself,” he said, pointing to the shell of his aircraft, being constructed in a private hangar.
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Riley purchased the blueprints for the Long-EZ for $250. He says that by the time the project is finished, he will have spent about $50,000 on the aircraft--half the cost of a comparable factory plane.
“If I buy a plane off a production line, I don’t know who built it or what kind of work they did,” Riley said. “But if I built it myself, I know the answer to that question.”
Riley is a member of the local chapter of the nationwide Experimental Aviation Club--a group of veteran pilots who have taken the step of constructing their own aircraft from blueprint plans or kits.
For them, this is no irresponsible way to seek thrills--it’s a way to take fewer chances, even before they get airborne.
“This project is a challenge; there’s no way around it,” said Kelly Kilmartin, 43, a Los Angeles city firefighter who is helping Riley build his Long-EZ. “If you love building things and you love flying, then this is definitely a high.”
“It’s like guys who are into woodworking or hot-rodding,” Riley said. “Doing the work making this plane is pleasurable in itself. Flying it is just the icing on the cake.”
In all, there are at least 500 different models of experimental aircraft. The category includes antique planes and old military aircraft, in addition to the home-builts.
Riley and Kilmartin say they’ve been working on the Long-EZ for more than two years now, and they still have a year to go before it will head for the runway.
Riley said: “We can’t wait to get it off the ground.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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The Long-EZ Aircraft
The plane that carried entertainer John Denver to his death on Sunday--the futuristic Long-EZ aircraft--is classified by the Federal Aviation Administration as an “experimental aircraft.”
Such planes carry that designation because they are not assembled in a factory by professionals, but are home-built by individuals. Here is a look at the Long-EZ:
Specifications
Weight (empty): 1,000 pounds
Fuel capacity: 48 gallons
Engine: 177 horsepower
Normal cruise: 187 mph
Top speed: 220 mph
Wingspan: 26 feet, 1 inch
Height: 7 feet, 11 inches
Length: 16 feet, 9 inches
SAFETY ISSUES
Statistics provided by the Airplane Owners and Pilots Assn. on general aviation aircraft as opposed to commercial and military aircraft show that 4.9% of the fatal accidents involving factory planes were the result of mechanical malfunctions and poor maintenance; that figure jumps to 12.8% for home-builts.
Sources: Team EZ web site, Experimental Aircraft Assn.; Researched by MALOY MOORE and ERIC MALNIC / Los Angeles Times
