Smitty Two wrote:
In article . com,
"Bret Ludwig" wrote:

As far as I'm concerned anyone
with serious money is an idiot to fool with homebuilts

Uh, I hope I can disagree without being disagreeable. This is RAH, isn't
it? I'm probably the poorest guy around here, but if I had buckets of
money, I'd still be building - I'd just have a bigger workshop. My fifty
square feet is a little tight even for the emp.

If you view building solely as a means to an end, you'd be an idiot to
undertake it no matter what your financial picture. If you enjoy
building, you'd be an idiot not to build, no matter your financial
picture.

So I believe the decision to build *ought* to be made without regard for
one's wealth or lack thereof. It may well be true that some will
undertake it as an attempt to reduce the expense of ownership, but if
they don't enjoy the process, the damn plane will never be finished.

If I had the money I might still build, but the basic homebuilt of
today is nothing I would build. In fact, I would probably restore a
fairly large antique airplane. Or take on non-aircraft projects-and buy
a T-38 off Chuck Thornton to fly. Let's face it, a homebuilt is a
serious compromise, because as a homebuilder you just can't do a lot of
things easily that a factory with tooling and workers that do difficult
tasks every day do.

Consider the Falco. Excellent airplane, poor homebuilt-unless perhaps
you are a master cabinetmaker or wood boatwright. The flip side are
aircraft like the traditional Pietenpols and Wittman
Tailwinds-excellent homebuilts, easily built from plans-but not
particularly desireable as airplanes in their own right.

The best question you can ask yourself about being an aircraft
homebuilder is, "What besides an airplane would I build myself?" A car?
A boat? A powerful radio transmitter? Model airplanes? Nothing?

A lot of times the answer is ,"Nothing". I suggest in those cases,
often as not, Experimental Amateur-Built is the perceived cheap
path-and it is, because it's become a dodge around type certification.

Type certification is good, or it's bad. Let's make up our minds and
act accordingly.