2004 Homebuilt Statistics

[Ron Wanttaja]

Just downloaded the 9 Jan 2005 FAA Registration Database.

As of 9 January, there were 27,614 Experimental/Amateur-Built aircraft
registered in the US. This was an increase of 3.8% over the previous year.
Here's a summary of the past four years:

Year Increase over previous year
2001 5.5%
2002 4.6%
2003 3.4%
2004 3.8%

So 2004 was a bit of a bump upwards, but not by much. However, the percentage
of homebuilts vs the overall fleet is still rising:

Year Percentage of total aircraft registered
2000 7.5%
2001 7.7%
2002 8.0%
2003 8.2%
2004 8.5%

Going to back to the changes between January 2004 and January 2005:

A total of 1,453 Exp/Am airplanes were added to the roster since January 2004,
and 432 were removed, leaving a net increase of 1021. Of the 1021 net
homebuilts added to the rolls in 2004, almost 40% (445 added, 44 removed) were
RVs!

New registrations of common aircraft during 2004:

RV: 445
Challenger II: 30
Glasair: 19
GlaStar: 15
Rotorway Exec: 36
Kitfox: 34
Lancair: 52
RAF: 14
RANS: 47
Searay: 21
Sonex: 21
Zenair: 61

(Figures are approximate due to naming inconsistencies)

Ron Wanttaja

[Dude]

Wow, go Van!

That's impressive. If these planes were certified, he would be right in
there vying for number one!

[Steve Easudes]

Ron I was curious as to why a airplane would be removed other than being
destroyed in an accident? There sure seems to be a large number being
removed and it doesn't seem like there were that many accidents.

Steve

[Dude]

"Steve Easudes" > wrote in message
ink.net...
> Ron I was curious as to why a airplane would be removed other than being
> destroyed in an accident? There sure seems to be a large number being
> removed and it doesn't seem like there were that many accidents.
>
> Steve
>

Tax Avoidance?

[Ron Wanttaja]

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 13:58:52 GMT, "Steve Easudes" > wrote:

>Ron I was curious as to why a airplane would be removed other than being
>destroyed in an accident? There sure seems to be a large number being
>removed and it doesn't seem like there were that many accidents.

Some were N-Number changes...there are about fifty cases of an owner of a
homebuilt in 2003 now owning the same model of homebuilt in 2004 with a
different N-Number. If the airplane changed hands and the new owner changed the
N-number, it's more difficult to tell. There are about ~190 instances where an
airplane on the 2003 register and not on the 2004 register share the same serial
number, but a lot of those are serial # "1" or "01" or "0001".

Putting my feet to the fire, I'd say about 150 of the homebuilts dropped off the
register probably changed N-Numbers.

The registration database also has a field that indicates the registration
status of the aircraft. Of the 432 planes on the 2003 roster that aren't in
2004:

About 60 are indicated as "Sale Reported"

About 70 are indicated as "The Triennial Aircraft Registration form was mailed
and has not been returned by the Post Office"

About 18 are indicated as "A second attempt has been made at mailing a Triennial
Aircraft Registration form to the owner with no response"

There were 193 homebuilt accidents last year, but not all them were totals, and
even then they often are not removed from the rolls.

Ron Wanttaja

[Dan Nafe]

In article >,
Ron Wanttaja > wrote:

> However, the percentage
> of homebuilts vs the overall fleet is still rising:
>
> Year Percentage of total aircraft registered
> 2000 7.5%
> 2001 7.7%
> 2002 8.0%
> 2003 8.2%
> 2004 8.5%


I'd say this is mostly due to C, P, & B producing fewer aircraft and
homebuilders continuing production.

[Ron Wanttaja]

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 16:55:58 -0500, Dan Nafe > wrote:

>In article >,
> Ron Wanttaja > wrote:
>
>> However, the percentage
>> of homebuilts vs the overall fleet is still rising:
>>
>> Year Percentage of total aircraft registered
>> 2000 7.5%
>> 2001 7.7%
>> 2002 8.0%
>> 2003 8.2%
>> 2004 8.5%
>
>
>I'd say this is mostly due to C, P, & B producing fewer aircraft and
>homebuilders continuing production.

Not sure if it's that simple. There are other Cs, Ps, and Bs out there, too.
There are 457 Cirrus aircraft with 2004 model years, plus 144 Pilatuses
(Pilati?) and 144 Bombardiers.

Taking the short cut of just counting planes with that particular model year
(which doesn't reflect that some were lost since then, or that homebuilts don't
always have a model year listed), the percentage of homebuilts added each year
runs like this:

2000 21.5%
2001 22.2%
2002 25.3%
2003 29.6%
2004 25.4%

So for 2004, the percentage of new homebuilts vs new production aircraft
actually dropped. But that nominal 25%, year after year, should bring up the
total percentage of the fleet.

As far as the net additions to the homebuilt fleet, 2004 is the second lowest of
the last five years.

Ron Wanttaja

[Ron Wanttaja]

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 08:16:53 GMT, I wrote:

>Not sure if it's that simple. There are other Cs, Ps, and Bs out there, too.
>There are 457 Cirrus aircraft with 2004 model years, plus 144 Pilatuses
>(Pilati?) and 144 Bombardiers.

Agrrh. Make that 41 Pilatuses. Curse my handwriting... :-)

Ron Wanttaja

[Dan Nafe]

In article >,
Ron Wanttaja > wrote:

[snip]
> Not sure if it's that simple. There are other Cs, Ps, and Bs out there, too.
> There are 457 Cirrus aircraft with 2004 model years, plus 144 Pilatuses
> (Pilati?)
[snip]

I asked my dad what the plural of Stearman was...

he said "PT-17's"

;->