Hangar Debrief
The FAA and some members of the group believed this
detail could help manage the abuses of professional builders by making it easier and more reliable to measure the
amount of work that a builder could contract with a professional and remain compliant with the 51-percent rule.
The ARC soon realized that a grandfathering, or a prior
policy plan, needed to be brought into the activities, and
it set about devising methods so that folks who had spent
years constructing their aircraft would not be regulated
out of existence by the imposition of the new rules being
put into place. We believe the provisions that were made
to accommodate those concerns have been resolved.
The new checklist is now in use by the FAA, and the FAA
website has numerous listings of popular kit airplanes,
along with the evaluations performed by the FAA's National
Kit Evaluation Team (NKET). Many of the previously encountered problems became much clearer when viewing a
completed evaluation.
Before we go any further, it would be good if you take a
look at the new checklist here.
The New Terms
interest in the work that some of these pros were doing
that appeared to compromise the major portion rule in FAR
21.191(g), the 51-percent rule, as it has become to be known.
Because of the relationship that the FAA, EAA, and industry
have, they all got together to resolve the growing concern.
We're pleased that they decided to enlist industry and
associations, as well as other individuals, to search for a
suitable solution. An Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC)
was formed in 2006, and it completed its work in 2008. The
results of the ARC activities were reported to EAA members,
and yet more new terms entered our vocabulary.
The ARC members proposed a revised checklist. While
some members wanted to stay with the old checklist,
others believed that adding tasks to the process would
provide benefits in that it would allow additional detail and
finer division of task assignment. The new checklist also
promised to get rid of the dual checks that some FAA representatives were using. We welcomed the committee's
proposal for an expanded checklist. The FAA accepted
the new checklist with the added tasks, elimination of dual
checks, more detail, and the expansion to four columns of
items. This was believed by many to be a big improvement.
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Vol.2 No.1 / January 2013
What are tasks? For this use, "task" is the term used on
both the old and new checklists to characterize the work
operations and components involved. It was recognized
early on that using parts count or time spent would result
in larger issues than the term task. The ARC discussed it
and recommended its continuation.
What is compensation? Paying someone for services,
goods, or cash for completing tasks on the list is commercial assistance.
What is not commercial assistance? Paying someone to
help arrange the shop, set up workstations, or provide tools
and training (as long as the training doesn't result in a finished part for the airplane) is not commercial assistance.
How does the homebuilder work through this maze?
As we said previously, when the FAA interacts with
the general public it produces an AC (20-27G in this
case), which has plain language and easy to follow
flowcharts. The AC also has examples of many concepts involved and is also available on the FAA.gov
website here.
The 2009 Checklist Job Aid is also available on the FAA
website. It's there to guide individuals through the steps
and procedures involved with amateurs building aircraft
for education or recreational purposes.