Opinions on "Experimentals"
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 9:13 am
There are definitely trade-offs. With a homebuilt, you are the
manufacturer, so you need to know what "AD"s apply. We like to
call them mods. That's also a great advantage in that you can
tailor and personalize your plane to be what you want. With
certified planes, you have someone else take care of the
airworthiness issues and you can just pay and fly. But your life
is now in someone else's hands.
Then there is performance. That's where the homebuilts really
shine, primarily because it is usually pretty easy to add on a
high horsepower engine. Also, I prefer the handling of the Rebel
over any certified that I have flown. It is still the only plane
I know where you don't have to fiddle with the elevator trim when
you change the throttle setting or go from climb to cruise. Also,
you can hold a very steep eyeball sinking turn with complete
confidence. I always get a kick at our local airport when I
outclimb the flying school Cherokees in the circuit, and I have
amphib floats.
So take your pick.
Walter
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manufacturer, so you need to know what "AD"s apply. We like to
call them mods. That's also a great advantage in that you can
tailor and personalize your plane to be what you want. With
certified planes, you have someone else take care of the
airworthiness issues and you can just pay and fly. But your life
is now in someone else's hands.
Then there is performance. That's where the homebuilts really
shine, primarily because it is usually pretty easy to add on a
high horsepower engine. Also, I prefer the handling of the Rebel
over any certified that I have flown. It is still the only plane
I know where you don't have to fiddle with the elevator trim when
you change the throttle setting or go from climb to cruise. Also,
you can hold a very steep eyeball sinking turn with complete
confidence. I always get a kick at our local airport when I
outclimb the flying school Cherokees in the circuit, and I have
amphib floats.
So take your pick.
Walter
-----Original Message-----
From: mike.davis@dcsol.com
[mailto:mike.davis@dcsol.com]On Behalf Of Ted
Waltman
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2004 5:43 AM
To: murphy-rebel@dcsol.com
Subject: Opinions on "Experimentals"
For the past week I've been asking many of the pilots
and A&P's that I
know what their opinion is on "certified" vs
"experimental" planes. As
I posted earlier this week, I'm looking at possibly
purchasing a 95%
Moose kit; turns out there is now a completed Moose
with 60 hours on it
on the market that I'm also going to look at.
Interestingly enough, I've gotton widely varying
opinions from folks on
the Moose vs, say, a 185. One very, very accomplished
A&P that I know
told me to run away from an experimental (this guy has
rebuilt many
certified planes in his career...AT6, Stearman,
Ag-Truck, Cub to name a
few). He told me experimentals are just not flight
tested as are
certified. For instance, certified planes are flight
tested so one can
still control & land if one has a split flap situation whereas
experimental are not. Go figure.
This same A&P says he has several friends with Yaks
who have no end of
oil leak problems with their MP-14's. Another local
guy I know who has
a Yak loves his MP-14. What a head trip...
A well respected CFI I know (ATP, all the ratings,
thousands of hrs in
all sort of single and multi-engine planes), is really down on
experimentals too. "You just never know what you're
getting into; No
formal AD process, who knows what's under the covers
workmanship-wise
that you can't see...," etc.
I told my wife all those folks in the EAA can't all be
wrong. She's
worried about the opinions above. Turns out the A&P I
mention above is
her cousin (ouch!).
I'm going to call EAA this a.m. to see if I can get a
local DAR or
technical counselor to look over the plane(s) with me.
Funny the WIDE mix of opinions out there.
I know this is kind of like asking the cat what he
thinks of mice, but,
what pro's and con's did you folks consider before
getting involved in
your kits?
Thank you yet again (even more beers are in order),
Ted
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