Plane Truths: Homebuilt aircraft can land amateurs in sticky situations

Gulf Times
 

By Ted Gregory

On the wings of fancy

‘Homebuilt’ experimental planes are a popular mix of passion, prudence and risk.

As a flight adviser, Ron Liebmann’s official duty is to evaluate the skills of a pilot preparing to fly an aeroplane for the first time. He starts by talking about experience. Then Liebmann morphs into something of an aviator psychologist, which he insists is necessary to deal with “homebuilders,” amateurs who construct their aeroplanes in garages, basements, even a firehouse Too often, the devotion needed to make such a craft can blind a do-it-yourselfer to potentially fatal mechanical flaws, Liebmann said. The pilots can become a little obsessive. He knows. In 1991, after spending 1,300 hours building a gleaming, red and white, 65-horsepower Kitfox — mostly in the Hoffman Estates, Illinois, firehouse where he worked — Liebmann accelerated down the runway in Marengo, Illinois, for its test flight and stopped, unable to take off.

Story:  https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/5264702/homebuilt-aircraft-can-land-amateurs-in-sticky-situations-gulf-times

http://www.gulf-times.com