Together We'll Make a Difference

A 55-year history of results from government advocacy testify that the EAA community’s approach to government relations works. The formula is simple, entailing two essential and inextricable elements:

• experienced and effective EAA-member representatives heed the voice of the members at large and engage assertively and constructively with policymakers in Washington, at the state and local level, and in other halls of government around the world; and
• more than 160,000 members and 1,000 local EAA chapters back up their representatives whenever necessary, weighing in with letters, e-mails, faxes, phone calls, and other ways of communicating to those policymakers.

The campaign to protect and advance the EAA community’s amateur-building movement is no exception. EAA members by the thousands have related their amateur-building experiences to FAA policymakers, reinforcing not only the educational and recreational benefits of amateur aircraft-building activity, but also the enormous value of the innovations and ideas that have sprung from the amateur-building movement and have benefited all of aviation.

As a consequence, together we’ve secured some important protections as the FAA asserts the need for stricter interpretation and enforcement of the rules requiring amateur builders personally to perform a majority of the tasks involved in constructing their aircraft (the “51% Rule”). These protections are:

• assurances that the FAA will uphold the amateur builder’s privilege to design, build, and fly an aircraft of any airworthy design, without limitations on the aircraft's complexity, power, size, performance, or other specifications; and
• “grandfathering” — a guarantee that aircraft kits already on the FAA’s published list of approved amateur-building projects will not be disqualified as a result of a new interpretation or enforcement policy.

Now, we have until Sept. 30, 2008 to raise our collective voice regarding our concerns with the FAA’s proposed approach to interpreting and enforcing the 51% Rule.

In mid-July the FAA published its proposed policy and said it would allow comments for only 30 days. In response, your EAA legislative-affairs representatives asserted the need for, and secured, an extension until Sept. 30. This extension gives us all time to respond to a troublesome element of the FAA’s proposal — the suggestion that, for every amateur aircraft-building project, the builder’s work must include a minimum proportion of tasks in a fabrication category and a minimum proportion of tasks in an assembly category.

The FAA proposes to break down its evaluation of the amateur builder’s contribution to the project in the following manner:

• at least 20% of total construction tasks must be fabrication done by the amateur;
• at least another 20% of total construction tasks must be assembly done by the amateur; and
• that leaves another 11% of tasks for the amateur to complete from either category, to ensure a total 51% contribution to the project.

If you agree with EAAers who believe such “breakdown” requirements unnecessarily complicate and confuse the matter of the amateur builder’s hands-on construction obligations, please make your voice heard before Sept. 30. Send your comments to …

e-mail:
miguel.vasconcelos@faa.gov

U.S. Mail:
Miguel L. Vasconcelos
Production and Airworthiness Division
AIR-200, Room 815
800 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, D.C. 20591

fax: 202-267-8850