On Fri, 14 May 2004 11:21:20 -0500, "Brad Mallard"
wrote:

Can you buy a wrecked plane like a Cessna 172, repair it yourself & then get
it recertified to fly under Experimental?

Certainly! Just come up with some sort of improvement, and license it as
Experimental/Research and Development or Experimental/Market Survey.

Of course, the certification of such aircraft isn't permanent, like
Experimental/Amateur-Built is. You'd have to apply for a new airworthiness
certificate every year. And approval is *not* automatic. And there'll
probably be restrictions on where you can fly and who can fly with you.
Kind of like the test-period restrictions for an Experimental/Amateur-Built
airplane, only permanent.

If you want to get the plane into the Experimental/Amateur-Built category,
you've got a more difficult task. You need to find an FAA rep who would
believe that the project met the "51% rule"...but your odds on that are
pretty remote. I met a guy once who claimed he'd gotten a C-150 into
Ex/Am, but when I suggested I write an article on his experience, he
clammed up.

Ron Wanttaja