NTSB issued in May a very interesting report on accidents with amateur-built
airplanes compared to certified airplanes, based on detailed evaluation of
the numbers behind the summary statistics:
<http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2012/SS1201.pdf>
http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2012/SS1201.pdf
One of their findings is that many more accidents caused by loss of control
in the air happen with amateur-built than with certified airplanes, and that
a high percentage is with second-hand airplanes a short time after being
purchased. NTSB points to the fact that FAA do not follow the same
practice as many other countries do, in that FAA do not require a
pre-approved test flight program, nor approval of a report on the test
flying (only a log book entry that test flight has been completed), which in
turn may cause the pilot's operating handbook/flight manual to be lacking
important airplane characteristics.
What the NTSB report do not say anything about, however, is mandatory
transition training and check out in the specific amateur-built airplane.
Under the joint European pilot license regime (JAR-FCL), we must receive
such training and have it entered in our log book. This means that before
we can fly the Europa we have built (unless approved by our CAA to perform
the very first flight) we must receive such airplane-specific rating, and
also before we may pilot another Europa than our own, no matter how many
hours we have logged in our own plane and irrespective of all the
similarities between two individual Europas.
Therefore the following question to the American Europeans on this forum:
Before you can legally be the pilot of ANY experimental classed,
amateur-built airplane, are you not required by FAA to receive transition
training/rating check-out by a pre-approved CFI or other experienced,
approved person, even for flying a "sister" airplane of the same type and
model that you may already be experienced in?
Regards,
Svein
LN-SKJ
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