Undocumented Projects

[Trilobyte]

This has probably been covered somewhere in the past, but given my abysmal search skills I have not been able to find it. So here goes:

Every now and then a plane comes up on Barnstormers or one of the other sites that appears to be complete but has no build documentation, no N number, no logs. Is there any way to get an airworthiness certificate on it, perhaps by dismantling it to where you have 51% of the tasks to accomplish and then document the rebuild? Or has it become a really big paperweight?

Just curious, and of course enquiring minds and all that... Thanks.

Tom

[FlyingRon]

It is not required that the person taking the plane through certification construct 51% of the tasks, just that someone (other than the manufacturer did). In most cases, this should be fairly obvious.

[Trilobyte]

Thanks, Ron. I understand your point, but given the nature of some within the FAA and given zero documentation of the build, I would think that you would have to prove to the inspector that an amateur (ie, you) had done 51% of the work. As you say, the evidence should be intuitively obvious, but obvious just doesn't cut it with some people.

Tom

[DaleB]

I think you'd need to discuss it with your friendly neighborhood DAR.

Some of those projects I see, I have to wonder if they were built and flown without the benefit of such luxuries as airworthiness certificates or registration. I remember when I was Champ shopping a few years ago, I found a few that were well out of annual but were more recently flown. Sometimes the pilot was no more recently and thoroughly legal than the airplane. When you fly off a farm strip in ND, I guess you don't really worry too much about the FAA ramp checking you.

Of course I'm sure most were just never quite finished.

[Trilobyte]

"Some of those projects I see, I have to wonder if they were built and flown without the benefit of such luxuries as airworthiness certificates or registration."

I have wondered the same myself. Out in the country where its just a bunch of good ol' boys hanging around the local patch, pretty much anything can happen. As we once said back in my misspent youth, "No cop, no law!"

[FlyingRon]

https://www.local10.com/news/weird-news/man-arrested-while-wearing-aint-nothin-illegal-til-you-get-caught-shirt (https://www.local10.com/news/weird-news/man-arrested-while-wearing-aint-nothin-illegal-til-you-get-caught-shirt?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark)

[Trilobyte]

I'm pretty sure the Judge will think it's funny too! Brings to mind another saying: "Life's tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid."