FAA Test Pilot Regulations

[Bill Greenwood]

Jostling the FAA on anything is a little like taking a stray dog to the vets for the first time; you are likely to get a long, time consuming list of ills when you didn't even know anything was wrong.

Now I am not up to date or at all expert on the test flying regs for homebuilts . I was a partner in one, a very small Rotax powered Starlite, but my partner did most of the construction. I was the more experienced pilot, and it was single seat so I did the test flying.My biggest problem was finding a parachute small enough to fit in there with me. It is a fun little plane, as light as some ultraligthts, but a performer with 140 mph top speed.
Here is how it seems to me that it should be done. If the builder is not very qualified to fly that type of plane solo,then he should ask someone who is to do the first couple of flights. If he is qualified, either by past experience or training in a two seat version of the same plane, then he can do the test flights.

I don't believe that a 2nd person should be aboard for these first flights. That simply puts a 2nd person at risk if there is an accident, and it is unlikely that the 2nd person can do much to help in an emergency, especially if the plane has only one set of controls. The 2nd person adds weight which can be factor in many of the smaller planes.

The idea that the 2nd person is there to write something down is a pretty thin argument. The pilot can easily write on a kneeboard or just remember the figures until after the fllght or even radio them to his crew on the ground if he really wants to make more out of a simple thing. Let's say you just built a Sonex, how much is there really to write? This isn't the test flight of a B-1, afterall.

Where I think the 2nd pilot should be allowed is once the plane has a few flights, then a 2nd pilot can be doing or helping with transition training, and this should be allowed, whether for free or for pay.

You would think that a builder/pilot would want to use the utmost care with a plane they had put years and maybe a lot of money into building, but that is not always human nature. Some people just say, "I built it and I am going to be the one to fly it" even if they haven't flown much during the building period, or were low time to start with. I know of a case where a man rebuilt a basket case high performance complex, fast high performance plane which he had never flown and he not only did the first test flight himself, but took his wife in the back seat.Other pilots with time in type were available, but he was not the kind of guy to share that time and fortuneally it was a safe flight. I know of another experienced Reno race pilot that did the same thing in a plane that was know to be hard to handle and he lost it on the first attempted takeoff, on a fairly narrow runway. A few people already flown this type of plane and might have been available to test it.