![]() ![]() What safety bulletins and/or airworthiness directives have been issued by the airframe and engine factories?.Is factory/designer support readily available? While you may not be building the aircraft yourself, you are still likely to want to give an occasional call to the factory for help with a problem or to purchase replacement parts.What engine is recommended and well tested for the aircraft? What is the safety record, maintenance schedule, and maintenance cost of the engine you are considering?.What is the safety record for the aircraft under consideration? What are the issues causing accidents?.Is formal transition training available for the aircraft? Will your insurance company require such training? Where does it happen? How much will the training cost?. ![]() ![]() Will you and the aircraft qualify for insurance coverage? If so, how much will it cost? If not, what will you need to do to qualify for coverage?.What are the issues to investigate? Certainly, the type of aircraft you seek will determine the pertinent topics to probe. I would buy one-or continue plugging along in the club Cherokee 180. For me, there was no question in 2005, I didn’t feel I had the skills, time, or support system available to build my RV. Building requires a passion to successfully complete. Most experienced folks in the homebuilt community agree that if you have to ask the question about whether you should buy or build a readily available homebuilt, you should buy. The plane should already be proven airworthy with known characteristics. If the plane you seek is common ( la Van’s RV, Sonex, Zenith, etc.), you will be up in the air much sooner, probably spend quite a bit less money than building it yourself, and will not have to sweat the potential headaches of Phase 1. There are many good arguments for buying your first homebuilt, especially if you love flying but don’t have a passion for building. I slowly crept into the homebuilt world by buying a flying Experimental years before I considered building a plane myself. Other friends of mine started assembling model airplanes in elementary school, graduated to U-control and radio-control kits, and didn’t think twice about building the full-scale airplane of their dreams. I’ve known a couple of folks who didn’t even have a pilot’s license when they started their first build, then went on to complete the project and took their checkride in the plane they built. Some people dive right into their first homebuilt project. ![]()
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