Van's RV14 - build outsourcing

Presumably in Belgium?

It sounds to me what you really are asking is if someone can build an aircraft for you. It happens all the time, it’s simply a question of what you are willing to pay for a new and operational kit-built aircraft. In fact it is a retirement plan of mine But, to deal with an owner through the build process, sounds like lots of additional work though.

Itsdescendnotgodown wrote:

It was just a thought…

And not a bad one. Glasair (the kit company) used to have this “2 weeks to fly” thing. The builder came to the factory and “built” an aircraft there in a limited time span of “two weeks”. For a factory this requires lots of resources, and lots of planning up front, and the end price the owner has to pay will reflect this. I don’t think a builder in general, building for fun, would venture into a similar endeavor just like that, unless getting payed by the hour. Then it’s just work with an added extra of agreeing with the owner on every little thing, teaching the owner and so on.

I think there would be merit in two people sharing a homebuild where one provides the materials and the other provides the skills with the aeroplane being jointly owned.

Yes. I had a visit from a Danish guy. They were 20 people building an Europa. They had built for more than 20 years, some have quit/died, new have come along. Sound like 80% social thing and 20% building, but so what. Having a great time is what it’s all about in the end

That’s fine if

• you don’t have a wife
• you have a wife but don’t like her
• you have a wife but she doesn’t like you
• you have a girlfriend who spends most of her time with her husband
• you have another plane to fly
• you don’t fly
• you think fishing is the pinnacle of social engagement

There is much anecdotal stuff about “assisted builds” but in Europe it is kept low-profile for the most part because in certain regimes there are disadvantages if you are not the actual builder. In the US, the only penalty for not being the builder is that the Annual needs to be inspected and signed off by an A&P, so a lot of this is done openly. In the UK, the LAA inspector inspects the build at various stages so unless you are “good friends” with him (which is the case quite often) you may want to conceal that somebody was helping you otherwise he may get more fussy.

This topic then connects to the need for the accepting registry to inspect the aircraft, which can be impossible especially with composite types and this is why certain types are [almost] impossible to register in Europe, in certain jurisdictions. For example in France certain homebuilts would have to be dismantled to 50% (whatever that means) before it would be accepted. Previous threads on this…

The OP is in Belgium and I have no idea what the regs are for acceptance on the Belgian registry, but, probably, an RV14 should be easy enough to inspect even if completely built by somebody else.

I know people who are involved in this but they don’t like posting about it

I asked one builder how much he would want for an RV10 and he said £250k

I have never known the inspectors here taking an aircraft apart 50% after it was built, whatever the materials. A local group built a 3/4 scale Mosquito and there was no problem, a local school built an MCR 4S,.Jodels are being built all the time. One just follows the procedures set out in RSA guidelines. As far as I know, no problem at all. I only know of one Van’s an RV9 built at St
Nazaire. People round here tend to prefer wood and fabric when homebuilding.