50+:1 15m sailplanes

The Sparrow Hawk is built under paet 103 which states a ultra light
glider is one which wieghs less than 155Lbs, now if you want to go and
compete at a regional which requires that all sailplanes have a
airworthiness certificate you can certify the SparrowHawk as
Experimental Air Racing because of the "need" required for racing. As
what was said earlier the limitations are attached to the pink ticket.
The limitations usually state that you hve a profiency area of 300
miles from your airport, now if you want to go somewhere else you can
just as long as you notify your local FSDO, maybe you just want to try
for a badge, any excuse will work, it will be the insurance company
asking the questions when you make the claim, if you have a
Experimental Air Racing and do not have any limitions attached you
better find them because you are not legal without them. Other wise
you fly as a utralight, nothing wrong with that.



"mm" wrote in message ...
"Kirk Stant" wrote in message
om...
(Bob Kuykendall) wrote in message
. com...


OK, I see your point - It's just a bit surprising given all the hoopla
that airplane manufacturers put our about the "huge cost of
certification", etc. Then why does any builder of sport aircraft
worry about certification? Why aren't there a bunch of factory-built
RV-8s running around with EXPERIMENTAL on them? Does it have to do
with commercial use of the plane? Insurance? Airplane vs Glider? I
think I may have to dig a little to see what is in the regs.

Because RV-8's are not generally used for exhibition and racing. There are
other categories for EXPERIMENTAL certification, like "Marketing Demo",
"Development", and "Amateur/Home Built" but these would also be unlikely to
apply to a typical factory built RV-8 (or Cezzna, or whatever). You can't
get an EXPERIMENTAL certificate just because you (as a manufacture) don't
want to bother with certification. This is one of the reasons that I am
amused by the vocal "anti-racing" crowd that occasionally pipes up; if it
wasn't for sailplane racing the basis of the EXPERIMENTAL certifications of
most US gliders would be questionable.

mm