Hello, I'm new to this forum and I have a question for you guys. I am looking for all practical information about recertifying an Aero Commander Lark to experimental. I have contacted the local FISDO and I believe it can be done under the R&D category, however I don't know if the benefit will outweigh the aggravation. Any personal experiences or general knowledge shared would be much appreciated. Thanks.
You are asking for lots of extra aggravation. R&D most certainly only allows you to fly in a limited area for specific flight test purposes.
The Lark should be a Normal Category certificated airplane. Why change? You can not do less maintenance and will have to spend more time talking with the FAA.
Best of luck,
Wes
Well, lessee, the exp. certificate will be of limited duration, the area which you can operate will be very restricting, and the plane will still have to be maintained IAW with Part 43. It's basically the worst of both worlds, exp/normal category.Originally Posted by vash
Just curious, why not just maintain and operate the airplane IAW with the FARs? An Aero Commander Lark is a good airplane and it's easy to maintain.
Thanks for the replies. The reason for my interest in doing this is as follows: 1. Since Aero Commander is an orphaned company parts and upgrades might be easier and/or less expensive to obtain. 2. The possibility of creating an STC for said parts/upgrades to provide some return on the time investment while helping others with similar goals.
I would be willing to put up with some initial aggregation as long as there was some relief later on, example ( a flight radius restriction for a set number of hours if after which I was able to make flights to other airports even if I had to contact that airports local FISDO so long as it wasn't for every consecutive flight to the same airport.)
Thank you in advance for your help.
How would you convince the FAA that you need to fly to other airports as part of your R&D? You might get more freedom in the Market Survey category. Presumably, you might be able to fly to other airports to show off your modifications. You will have to chat with the local FSDO to get to the bottom of it.
Good luck vash!
An Exp A/W certificate for R&D is temporary. Normal duration is 30 days. If you need more time to test your product, have to reapply every 30 days. Can't carry any passengers during that time. When you're done, have to get the standard A/W certificate back. Market survey is essentially in the same boat, may get a longer duration but it's still a temporary certificate.
With only ~100 n-numbers airframes, unless you come up with a really, really popular STC, doubtful you'll ever recover your investment. If you need an alteration to keep your plane flying, there's better ways to address the problem.
You should check out what the SeaBee owners are doing. The articles that are appearing suggest that they are moving the airplanes to Experimental Exhibition for reasons similar to yours. The airplanes have no value to a commercial operation and it sounds like there is no parts support so the owners have to build stuff.
On the other hand, there is a reason that the Lark is an orphan. You can fly at lower overall expense and aggravation if you buy a Skyhawk or Cardinal of similar vintage. Have you looked at the insurance rates for a Lark? Insurance companies charge more to insure orphans because they know if it gets bent parts will be very expensive.
Sorry that there are no good answers. Orphan aircraft are for folks with relatively deep pockets. For better or worse, those of us with more modest means are best advised to stay close to the mainstream of aircraft choices.
Best of luck,
Wes
N78PS
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