| Home | Contact us | Aircraft buyer's guide | Airworthiness notices | Builders guide to safe materials | Site map & search |

Recreational Aviation Australia Inc home page

Homebuilt aircraft: building your own


Rev. 59 — page content was last changed 3 February 2010
  

Contents

  1. Build an aeroplane from 'scratch'
  2. Build an aeroplane from a factory-supplied kit
  3. Some members' projects
  4. Informative documents associated with amateur building

1. Build an aeroplane from 'scratch'

In Australia, any RA-Aus member can design their own aeroplane, fabricate and assemble it at home (some have done it in the lounge room but most do it in a garage or shed), then fly it; all without need for either the design or the construction to meet any certification standard. Alternatively, an aeroplane — of a previously accepted design — can be fabricated and assembled utilising an RA-Aus approved and commercially-supplied set of drawings and/or a data package. Of course, for such aeroplanes to be flown, the pilot must have a valid RA-Aus pilot certificate, the aircraft must have valid RA-Aus registration and be initially confined to a designated testing location.

The Civil Aviation Orders 95.10 and 95.55 paragraph 1.5 provide the means by which any individual, or small group (who are not required to have any aeronautical or engineering experience whatsoever) can design and/or scratchbuild (i.e. build your own design or build from commercially-supplied plans) a very low-cost airframe from basic commercial materials, whether the design is conventional or unconventional — and there aren't too many RA-Aus forms to fill in.

CAO 95.10 was the original 1976 legislation which subsequently enabled the formation of the AUF/RA-Aus. CAO 95.55 was promulgated in 1990, see our history. There may be an impression that RA-Aus has been drifting away from its CAO 95.10 roots; in 1994 there were about 550 CAO 95.10 aircraft representing 47% of the register while in December 2009 there were only 250 such aircraft — just 8.5% of the much expanded RA-Aus aircraft register. However these bare figures don't reveal the great number of members who have taken advantage of the association's very successful campaign to introduce paragraph 1.5 to CAO 95.55. That paragraph came into effect in 1998 and is, more or less, a direct extension of CAO 95.10 allowing a heavier, but more durable, airframe for a single-engine, single-place or two-place homebuilt aeroplane; known as an 'RA-Aus amateur-built aircraft'.

As in CAO 95.10, CAO 95.55 – 1.5 also allows for kit-building (i.e. building from a commercially-supplied kit of airframe parts) and in December 2009 there were 926 such aircraft with current registration. At that time homebuilts accounted for 43% of the 2955 aircraft with valid RA-Aus registration.

2. Build an aeroplane from a factory-supplied kit

As mentioned CAO95.55 paragraph 1.5 also led to the availability of lower cost, reasonably comfortable, two-place, cruising aircraft which could be built from kits of parts supplied by aircraft manufacturers. The kits are in a form that makes the building of the aircraft reasonably foolproof and rather cheap. Kit-building relieves the amateur builder of the design work and much of the more difficult airframe fabrication phases. This aspect has been good for the Australian aviation community in general (and the AUF/RA-Aus members in particular), in that many more people have been, and are being, enticed into recreational aviation.

The airframe kits must be approved by RA-Aus/CASA and CAO 95.55 paragraph 1.5 requires that the major portion (51% plus) of the building task is undertaken by the owner. There is no major portion requirement for a CAO 95.10 kit nor for the newer CAO 95.55 paragraph 1.9 category of Light Sport Aircraft. See the synopsis of the LSA category.

If an intending builder prefers that their homebuilt project be overviewed by an expert from the Sports Aircraft Association of Australia the options available under CAO 95.55 paragraph 1.2 are available. CAO 95.55 paragraph 1.2 also requires that the major portion of the building task is undertaken by the owner. It is probable that an ABAA aircraft would have a better resale value than a similar CAO95.55 para 1.5 aircraft.

Other reading:
The regulatory framework for RA-Aus operations
The builders guide to safe aircraft materials.

3. Some members' projects

Building an aircraft is not particularly difficult but does require painstaking dedication to quality management over a period of perhaps six months to several years. Some RA-Aus member projects — that illustrate both that quality management requirement plus the options for homebuilt recreational aircraft — are detailed (to varying degrees) in this section. The most detailed presentation is Lynn Jarvis's part kit-built, part plans-built Sonex.

Own design projects
Plans-built projects
Kit built projects


4. Informative documents associated with amateur building


Description MS
Word		 PDF HTML Date Posted
Synopsis: the Light Sport Aircraft category     5 Apr 2006
AC 21-42(0) LSA Manufacturers' Requirements     14 Jan 2006
AC 21-41(0) LSA Certificate of Airworthiness     14 Jan 2006
FAR Part 23 (text file)     ''' 16 Apr 2009
Amateur building information pack   Oct 2001
CAO 95.55   '''   6 Jun 2006
CAO 95.10   '''   31 May 2006
CAO 95.32   '''   31 May 2006
CAO 101.28 issue 3   '''   19 Jul 2005
CAO 101.55 issue 1 amended   '''   19 Jul 2005
Technical Manual section 3.3.1   '''   Oct 2000
RA-Aus Aircraft Registration Numbers Explained Oct 2000
Building Project Administrative Sequence Oct 2000
Major Portion (51%) Rule Assessment     28 Nov 2000
Compendium of RA-Aus magazine articles on amateur building [January 1999 to September 2001]   Sept 2001
Definition of Builder/s - Ops Bulletin 1/01 Item 2 12 May 2001
Buying and Selling - Legal Issues 22 Aug 2002
FAA AC 90-89A Amateur Built Aircraft and Ultralight Flight Testing Handbook (800 kB)     19 Jan 2001


Web author: John Brandon     [contact information]