Falco - Kit plane or Plans-built?

Kyle Boatright wrote:
"Rich S." wrote in message
...

The headline on the Falco website reads, "Five Falcos Win Awards at Falco
50th Birthday". They're talking about Oshkosh - oops, I mean Airventure
2005.

The judges awarded Grand Champion Plans-built, Reserve Grand Champion
Plans-built, and two Bronze Lindys Plans-built to Falcos. The fifth award
went to a factory-built Falco for Outstanding Limited Production.

Here's what baffles me. Let me quote from the Falco website:

"The Falco's proven record and engineering puts it in a class by itself.
It was designed by Stelio Frati, one of the great aircraft designers of
all time. It was certified as a production aircraft. It was built as a
production aircraft and has a history of over 40 years of use by pilots in
Europe. Now, with many refinements, the Sequoia Falco is a modern,
state-of-the-art aircraft built from kits and flown by pilots all over the
world."

To highlight, ". . . the Sequoia Falco is a modern, state-of-the-art
aircraft *built from kits* . . ."

I saw those Falcos and they were absolutely stunning. For a KIT PLANE. I
doubt they would generally be so nice if the builder had to spend hundreds
of hours building those parts available from Falco as kits, including:

Wood Kits. . .
Wing - Spars, Ribs, Fuselage Frames
Tail Group - Spars, Ribs

Equipment. . .
Tail Group, Fuselage, Wing
Flap Control , Control System , Trim Tab Controls
Canopy, Engine Mount, Fuel Tanks, Inverted Header Tanks
Landing Gear, Nose Gear, Landing Gear Retraction
Cowling , Cowling Jig
Seats , Instrument Panel, Left Hand Throttle
Instrumentation, Electrical
Engine Controls, Baffling
Antenna Kit

The bottom line is that the basic kit for a Falco totals nearly $100,000
dollars. I can see that a percentage of that is for the materials
themselves, but a large part of it is for fabrication cost.

Again, it is not my intent to belittle the outstanding workmanship and
long hours to build one of these beauties. I simply question their
classification as a plans-built airplane.

Rich S.


It is a case by case basis. I've got an acquaintance (sp?) who is a true
perfectionist and is plans building a Falco. His airframe is more or less
complete. Heck, if he stained and sealed the thing, it could pass for the
finest furniture. Anyway, I believe he has purchased a couple of items such
as the cowl and the canopy, but as you alluded to, the subkits are
enormously expensive, and he's chosen to spend time instead of dollars.
Despite the fact that he's purchased a part or two, I'd list it as a plans
built. Shoot, the guy even welded up his own engine mount...

I'm sure there are individuals who are going the other route too, and even
folks who pay to have aircraft built for them, and will proudly claim they
plans built the thing in their own garage. I don't see a way to avoid that,
other than the hollow feeling someone would have to get if s/he won a Grand
Champion award and only participated at the level of writing checks and
flying the completed airplane to the show. There was an RV-6 a few years
ago that won a bunch of awards, but after talking to the owner and reading
an article on the airplane in Sport Aviation, it was obvious that the
airplane, beautiful as it was, was professionally built, and the owner was
trying to hide that fact. Jerk.

KB



Kyle, that is not a new thing, I think that you will find that a
majority of the show circuit winners with homebuilt aircraft are
professionally built or at least a majority of parts are professionally
built. There is a professional builder in Medford Oregon that cranks out
a couple winners every year. While I have no problem with people getting
help building their aircraft is seems a shame that they should be judged
in the same way as the guy like me that had to spend carefully while
building and had to drill and rivet every hole in the airframe.
I know that there are some builders that built show quality airplanes
and I envy thier talent but most don't.

Jerry