3 ms·

I saw this article when it appeared, but was a little disappointed that "homemade" means "built the aircraft ... from a kit manufactured in South Africa by the

by jfk13 7y ago

I saw this article when it appeared, but was a little disappointed that "homemade" means "built the aircraft ... from a kit manufactured in South Africa by the Airplane Factory". Not to belittle the time, effort and skill involved (both in assembling and flying it), but to me "homemade plane" carried slightly different connotations than "assembled from a kit". (I'm no expert carpenter, but I have built some pieces of furniture from basic pieces of timber, etc.; I would consider these to be "homemade". I've also assembled flat-packed furniture from places like Ikea or Homebase; I wouldn't refer to those items as "homemade".)

867567838694 7y ago
Same. very click-baity title. I was expecting something more like https://giphy.com/gifs/car-homemade-zVMrf7rqfZcQM https://giphy.com/gifs/car-homemade-zVMrf7rqfZcQM and was disappointed, not a really expensive kit-plane. I mean ya thats cool, but this is a shitty headline trying to take advantage of 1st world bias and low expectations for some clicks. I've built kit cars, race bikes from parts and other things and never once called them "home made". When they start banging out the skins on a metal press we can talk about home made...
sokoloff 7y ago
This is still thousands of hours of effort, riveting aluminum, installing avionics, engine, and interior, etc. IMO, it's much closer to making furniture than assembling flat-packed from Ikea.
lutorm 7y ago
To qualify as an "experimental/amateur-built" aircraft (which is the official FAA designation for these planes), the majority (ie > 50%) of the work must be done by amateurs. This means, in particular, that the kit itself can not be more than half the work it would be to build it from raw materials. So, like other people have said, it's not like you're slapping some parts together and you're done.

3 ms·

I saw this article when it appeared, but was a little disappointed that "homemade" means "built the aircraft ... from a kit manufactured in South Africa by the

by jfk13 7y ago

867567838694 7y ago
Same. very click-baity title. I was expecting something more like https://giphy.com/gifs/car-homemade-zVMrf7rqfZcQM https://giphy.com/gifs/car-homemade-zVMrf7rqfZcQM and was disappointed, not a really expensive kit-plane. I mean ya thats cool, but this is a shitty headline trying to take advantage of 1st world bias and low expectations for some clicks. I've built kit cars, race bikes from parts and other things and never once called them "home made". When they start banging out the skins on a metal press we can talk about home made...
sokoloff 7y ago
This is still thousands of hours of effort, riveting aluminum, installing avionics, engine, and interior, etc. IMO, it's much closer to making furniture than assembling flat-packed from Ikea.
lutorm 7y ago
To qualify as an "experimental/amateur-built" aircraft (which is the official FAA designation for these planes), the majority (ie > 50%) of the work must be done by amateurs. This means, in particular, that the kit itself can not be more than half the work it would be to build it from raw materials. So, like other people have said, it's not like you're slapping some parts together and you're done.