Franken-Plane

[FL420]

Here's your junkyard

Iis it possible to go to a junkyard and mix and match pieces to make your own airplane?

Here's your junkyard. White Industries in Bates City, MO. Ask these folks. Just a walk through their inventory is interesting as they had some one offs that had never been certified when I was there looking for Cheyenne windows.

http://www.whiteindustries.com/

 

[avbug]

Whites is a wonderland; I've procured parts from there before.

Unbeknownst to me, an aircraft I was assigned to fly for a small company came from there. It had been scrapped by a jump operation, if that tells you anything...when a jump operation says the aircraft is no longer fit to fly, then one may take it on good faith that it's probably a serious understatement.

This aircraft had been purchased from Whites, refurbished (to use the term with great liberality), and repainted...the paint being the only thing that they did right. What a disaster. Good paint and clever log entries can't hide bad work, and I grounded it very quickly. The operator tried flying it anyway, and soon came to regret that decision...but not before nearly killing several people.

No issues exist regarding replacing multiple assemblies on an airframe with parts of a known history and quality, and the appropriate part number.

I've always maintained that the most dangerous part of any jump is the ride to altitude. Wuffo you goan jump outta apufektlygood airplane wuffo, anyway? So sayeth the wuffos among us. That's an easy one...there's no such thing as a perfectly good airplane.

Especially when one has a perfectly good parachute strapped to one's back.

 

[Gorilla]

Can't you pretty much do anything so long as you declare the aircraft EXPERIMENTAL, and the FAA will buy off on the structural soundness?

I've always wondered about Rutan's brilliant designs, and can imagine the inspector looking at the first VAri-eze, and saying "Oh my, what is that? You want ME to sign it off?"

 

[erj-145mech]

There are different classes of "Experimental". Which class would you put that in? It isn't amateur built, it isn't exhibition. There are also many restrictions imposed on Experimental operation, including use for hire, parachute ops, etc.

Putting an aircraft into experimental isn't a free for all.

 

[bocefus]

Exactly. And trying to use the experimental category to get relief from other regulations/requirements is not going to work. They will never issue a certificate.