In article ,
says...

On Mon, 01 Aug 2005 05:07:38 GMT, (sleepy6) wrote:

These aircraft can be maintained and inspected by the owner if he
attends schools to get the repairmans certificates offered. Note tha
t
this does NOT give him the authority to make modifications to the
plane. Completing these schools does not even allow him to make "maj
or
repairs". Just because the word "experimental" is involved does NOT
mean that other experimental (such as amateur built) rules apply to
LSA.

Actually, the same rules *do* apply to ELSAs...or to be more correct,
the same
*lack* of rules. 14CFR Part 43 does not apply to any aircraft certifi
ed as
Experimental.

Experimental LSAs, like Experimental Amateur-Built aircraft, are gover
ned by the
operating limitations issued at the time the plane is certified. The
ELSA
operating limitations specified in 8130-2F Change 1 certainly imply th
at major
changes may be performed ("All major changes or modifications will be
listed in
the aircraft records...") but make no stipulation on the minimum requi
rements
necessary to perform such a modification.

Last January, I asked an Inspector at the FAA Light Sport Aviation Bra
nch
whether the owner of an Experimental LSA was free to modify the aircra
ft. The
reply was, "There is nothing regulatory requiring the aircraft be held
to the
consensus standard after certification in the experimental category so
they
would be free to modify as they see fit but the aircraft would have to
back to
phase 1 testing...."

This pre-dated the Change 1 to 8130-2F, but I haven't seen anything in
Change 1
to contradict this.

Ron Wanttaja

It's not in the operating limitations, it's in the repairman
certification.

When you get the repairmans certificate for your amature built
experimental it gives you certain privleges.

The LSA repairmen certificates give them a different set of privleges.
For instance, you can attend a 16 hour school to get a LSA repairman
certificate with an inspection rating. That allows you to perform the
annual condition inspection but does not allow you to perform any work.

You can attend a 120 hour school to get an LSA repairman certificate
with a maintaince rating. That allows you to do certain work but
states "(excluding a major repair or a major alteration..."

Remember that anyone can get these ratings with no experience and very
little schooling so the FAA isn't gonna let them have but so much
freedom.

Read FAR 65.107(c)(1) and (3)

It may be possible for an A&P to make modifications to ELSA but the LSA
repairmen can't do it themselves.