Am I the only one...

There are a few pics on http://www.flickr.com/photos/tailwindforum/

The pic that matches the avtar is on the first page. There are a few more there also. There is a frontal view and some mod pics. Thee are some in flight too if you look through the whole site. A lot of pics on there are from a guy who is on his 10th Tailwind build. He makes all of us look like amateurs.

This is a builder's web site. I would like to say, with humbleness and humility, that there are A&P's that can't build their way out of a wet paper bag and there are some non-A&P's that can build Oshkosh winners and their craftsmanship is second to none. Myself, I am glad I learned what I learned in school so I have the knowledge to do this. Additionally I am keeping in practice/learning and also gaining flight time in my own airplane. You can't beat that.

Wittmandriver
 
Murdoughnut said:
A homebuilt is one loose screw away from disaster.
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So is any other aircraft.

An F-15 recently had the nose fall off because it had incorrectly manufactured upper longerons. Subsequently 40% of the F-15 fleet was grounded for good because of manufacturing defects in the longerons.

This is a $20 million jet, bro. Just because something is "factory built" doesn't mean dick.

I'm with the guys who say that homebuilts can run the gamut from outstanding to death-trap, all depending on who built it and with how much time, money, and care.
 
I would stongly suggest that anyone who hasn't done it before go check out an EAA event. Be it AirVenture in Oshkosh, Sun n' Fun in Lakeland, one of the regional fly-ins, or even just a local EAA chapter pancake breakfast fly-in. There is always a great display of homebuilts at these events. Take the time to really look them over, talk to the owners about them, and I'm sure you'll come away with a greater respect for the quality of workmanship in the majority of these airplanes.
 
Hacker15e said:
So is any other aircraft.
Click to expand...

That's exactly right... any airplane, be it Home built or Factory built, is subject to the same loose bolt. That's what a good preflight is for...

But I know a lot of Home builts are built so that you CAN look at almost every bolt during the preflight... Not so true about some factory builts. You just have to trust that the person who put that plane together at the factory did it right, with no way to really check...
 
It kind of sounds like there are quite a few biased individuals here. My first CFI was one of them. Maybe he had his reasons. I will still thank him until the day I die for teaching me to fly, but we do have a big difference in opinion.

Here is another issue to chew on. So many times, someone's opinion is the same as or influenced by instructors/teachers. For instance, take a look at political org's on college campuses. Most are quacks influenced by faculty, whether left or right. If they had a mortgage, family, kids, etc, their political views would be totally different. Faculty is so out of touch sometimes. Flight instructors can be the same way. They go through the training pipeline, straight to airlines picking up misconceptions from their instructors doing the same thing. Sometimes they are quite young and easily influenced. Then, they get to the airlines, and being the way they are taught to be, start to berate GA and how the little guys are in "their" way and they start to believe all the airline rhetoric trying to shut down the very people that trained them. Face it, the airlines are there to make money without a care for anything else, pilots included-period. Airlines have their place, but it is not in my future.

I wish some, notice I am not saying all, because it would be stupid to generalize, instructors would get real and teach people right. I plan on becoming one because I am passionate about teaching people correctly and without bias after I finish my Navy career. I have been fortunate to fly with a few of them. Thank you.

Instructors going to the airlines-do not forget where you came from! Unless, you want your salaries to continue to decline, pensions taken away, training costs to skyrocket, etc. Think about this: The airlines will find themselves training their own pilots because they will have succeeded in shutting down GA in an extremely expensive user fee-laden environment with ATC controlled by them. That is what they want... Is that what you all want? If so, you think you are a slave now...You'll have to win the lottery to be able to leave because you will be so far in debt with no end in sight.

Well, the skies will be cleaner for them. Fly the "friendly skies".

Lemmings come to mind when I think about this...

Wittmandriver
 
Depends on who built it for me. If a good A&P/ Engineer built it and I knew him to be very meticulous, I'd fly in the homebuilt.

But right now, I do not know anyone who I would get in a plane with if they built it. And I know for darn sure, if I built an airplane I would not want to be the one flying it!!!
 
I'm pretty open to them, but that's because my instructor is building one and so is the guy in the next door hanger.
 
I'd do it, gladly.

Some of the nicest planes I've seen are kits.

Look at the canards that Velocity puts out. Very nice indeed.

The way I look at it, if it has say over 100TT, I'd feel comfortable enough in it.

I'm weary of a plane that's older than me, but I still get in it. As for The ones that were built during the era of a 48 star flag... I just might feel more comfortable in a kit.

At least a kit build has a fresh motor, I guess.
 
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