I will say that a lot of the local projects are competed by people either retired or semi-retired, and that certainly makes things move faster.
That would make sense. You (in your community) probably also have a lot of mutual support. I know of several homebuilding projects in progress and all are being built seemingly in isolation, at home or some such. I think it’s fair to say that European GA is a relatively individualistic pursuit, which would make homebuilding rather a lonely activity.
This probably has a bearing on it too in some cases – if you feel that you are adding real (resale) value by working on it yourself.
which would make homebuilding rather a lonely activity.
Lonely in the sense that you spend time alone building. On the other hand it’s a great community of other “lonely” people that you meet from time to time, and keep in touch online.
All in all it’s not very different from other activities today, except from activities requiring social meet ups, like a football team or something, where the social aspect is perhaps the main thing.
Nevertheless, the goal is to build and fly, engaging in tea parties everyday will not speed it up 
Peter wrote:
You (in your community) probably also have a lot of mutual support. I know of several homebuilding projects in progress and all are being built seemingly in isolation, at home or some such. I think it’s fair to say that European GA is a relatively individualistic pursuit, which would make homebuilding rather a lonely activity.
The community here is mainly at the airport so I think unless you build the plane in a hangar, which is somewhat contentious with FAA and those who’d like your hangar for a flying plane, its EAA and on-line contacts that provide ‘support’, plus sporadic visitors checking on progress. OTOH the problem with building at the airport would be that unless you’re building in the work week, you’ll probably have a lot of distracting visitors…
Actually, I think this would be a great idea to build a plane with someone else or as a group of people, sharing skills and later the plane to fly.
A data point here
As of this writing, about 1000 RV-10s are flying and almost 2400 kits have been started.
It is a higher completion rate that I thought.
LeSving wrote:
The usual excuses for not building is:
You forgot the most important one: Many pilots prefer flying above sitting in their basement or garage drilling holes for rivets.
In many dimensions, the interests and skills needed for flying are quite opposite to the interest and skills needed for building an airplane. Therefore the overlap of people who are excited about both is actually not that big.
In my limited experience with the homebuilder community, many of them are clearly people that are more interested in building than in flying and it might even be just by coincidence that they live their builders dream on a plane rather than a house, boat, etc.
You can tell these pilots by the fact that even after completion of the build phase they talk a lot more about their ideas for the next (build) project rather than all the great flights they could do with their brand new homebuilt.
Malibuflyer wrote:
In my limited experience with the homebuilder community, many of them are clearly people that are more interested in building than in flying
The ones I come across in vintage gliding or vintage aeroplanes did give up on flying 20 years ago (they are not supposed to fly it )
Jujupilote wrote:
It is a higher completion rate that I thought.
The RV are hugely popular and have outstripped all other manufacturers in the US. I think quite a lot of the built airplanes are being built professionally and sold on, which explains the almost 50% completed rate (which is only for the RV10).
The scene in Europe is hugely different because experimentals are of very restricted use in comparison to the US, where they are pretty much equal in utility to certified airplanes for the average private owner. While some countries allow wider use (yes LeSving I know about Norway) others do not allow IFR and together with the fact that experimentals need a lot of paperwork and hassle to fly internationally within Europe has put them behind ULM’s in popularity.
Malibuflyer wrote:
In my limited experience with the homebuilder community, many of them are clearly people that are more interested in building than in flying and it might even be just by coincidence that they live their builders dream on a plane rather than a house, boat, etc.
You can tell these pilots by the fact that even after completion of the build phase they talk a lot more about their ideas for the next (build) project rather than all the great flights they could do with their brand new homebuilt.
Yes I also know some of those. And quite a few who do complete sell up rather quickly thereafter to either start the next project or to try to reconnect with their families :)
The former owner of my plane built a Lancair IVP. It was a post-retirement project, after he sold his mechanical engineering company. It took him 3 years full time. It’s an amazing plane, the only “small plane” I’ve ever flown where you have to worry about the 250 K speed limit. But what a labour of love!
There’s a guy at the airport where I’m currently flying (Dax, LFBY) who has built no less than five planes from scratch – not kits. Now THAT is dedication!
Mooney_Driver wrote:
together with the fact that experimentals need a lot of paperwork and hassle to fly internationally within Europe
That’s not quite true. While indeed IFR cross border flying in non certified aircraft within Europe is cumbersome or sometimes even impossible, if you fly VFR (which most private pilots do in Europe) it is very straightforward to travel within Europe. For most countries, especially in Nortern-/Western Europe not even a special entry permission is required (in contrast to Microlights). In conclusion in Europe an Experimental is (almost) as useful for VFR flying as certified aircraft are. Homebasing is another story, however only if the plane is foreign registered.
