REFLECTOR:Gear Up Landing - N6Q
Scott Derrick
reflector@tvbf.org
Sun, 01 Jun 2003 11:55:44 -0600
Scott Derrick wrote:
> From my reading of the NTSB reports the homebuilt record is poor to a
> large degree because of very stupid things the builders have done.
> Stands to reason as builders are flying most of the homebuilts.
I would like to retract the above statement as to simplistic.
What I meant to say was that all airplanes certified or experimental
have the normal amount of pilot errors ranging from not knowing the
aircraft systems, to vfr pilot flying into imc conditions and everything
in between.
Experimental's have the added risk factors of unconventional layout or
controls and just plain old builders/maintainers mistakes thus
increasing the mechanical failure rate. How many first or early flight
failures do you read about with experimental's vs factory built? I'm
not saying its that the builder or maintainer made a bonehead mistake
though that is part of it. It's that we are doing experiments! Some
work, some don't. Of the ones that don't I think most of us skate by
with a brief period of elevated heart rate and a story to tell, some
break an airplane, a few get hurt or cash it in.
It does seem to me that there are more percentage wise "kit-built"
experimentals owned by non-builders than there are plans built
experimentals. This would exacerbate the non-standard controls problem
and raise the errors caused by not knowing the aircraft systems
intimately in kit builts like the Velocity.
Scott