Moratoruim may change
This is the second article from the Bulletin Paper in Bend Oregon. We may see some changes on the moratorium.
WASHINGTON ? In response to objections from Central Oregon airplane manufacturers and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the Federal Aviation Administration may back off its decision to freeze evaluations of home-built planes, Wyden said Thursday evening.
The FAA?s decision last month to stop the evaluations - which makes it easier for builders to get their planes deemed flight-worthy ? could sharply cut into sales of home-built planes manufactured by Bend-based Epic Aircraft and Redmond?s Lancair, the companies said earlier this week. That potential drop-off prompted Wyden, a Democrat, to ask the agency to reconsider its action, in a letter he sent Wednesday.
An FAA official acknowledged Thursday the agency never considered the economic impact of its decision last month to halt courtesy evaluations of new plane models from companies like Epic and Lancair.
Home-built plane manufacturers rely on the evaluations, which are typically done once for each new plane model. Companies can then assure customers that if they stick to the directions when building the planes, the FAA will sign off on them as safe to fly.
On Thursday, acting FAA Administrator Robert Sturgell told Wyden the agency is willing to resume inspecting home-built airplanes but could not provide details on when or how that would happen, Wyden said.
?The administrator said the agency would be willing to do courtesy inspections under a revised evaluation system and that that could be accomplished quickly,? Wyden said. ?I asked him to get back to me tomorrow with the details, because I need to know the details of a revised evaluation system and whether the timetable is going to be adequate to respond to an important industry.?
It is unclear how the revised system Sturgell proposed Thursday would affect other rules the FAA may change related to kit planes. Earlier this week, officials said suggested changes to some policies would be announced next month and likely wouldn?t be approved until October.
Epic CEO Rick Schramek, who met with FAA officials on this issue this week in Washington, D.C., said he would welcome a faster evaluation under the new rules Sturgell referenced Thursday.
?I?d like to know how we?d do under the new proposed evaluations and would be willing to do what was necessary to be in compliance with the new policy definitions,? Schramek said.
Redmond-based Lancair and Bend-based Epic together employ about 200 people. Lancair?s newest model, the turboprop Evolution, costs more than $250,000, while Epic?s six-seat LT turbo- prop costs about $1.4 million. Earlier this week, Wyden suggested the FAA?s hold on courtesy inspections could cost hundreds of jobs. But Schramek and Joe Bartels, the CEO of Lancair, said they have no plans for layoffs.
The FAA?s decision last month was in reaction to a report from a committee of industry and government officials reviewing the 1960s-era rules for building kit planes.
Kit planes emerged in the early part of the 20th century and were made of basic materials like wood and fabric. They could be made in a typical workshop or garage and needed only simple tools.
But since Lancair started making planes with composite materials in the early 1980s, home-built planes have become more complex, requiring a host of specialized tools, expensive equipment and precise construction.
The rules haven?t evolved with the technology. The committee agreed that the rules ?are inadequate, which has led to abuse of the system,? said Frank Paskiewicz, the manager of the FAA?s production and airworthiness division.
?These companies have engineered themselves into a position where they are exceeding the bounds of the rules,? he added.
Paskiewicz said the FAA did not analyze the economic effects of its decision, as it routinely does with other policy changes. He also said safety was ?not directly? an issue in motivating the FAA to institute the moratorium.
?There are lots of rules and regulations and policies and procedures ... that aren?t directly related to safety,? Paskiewicz said.
Only a handful of Lancair crashes in the last 20 years have been linked to errors made in building or maintaining the planes, according to a National Transportation Safety Board database. No Epic planes have been involved in a crash or accident.
Builders are supposed to do at least 51 percent of the work in making their kit planes. But Epic in particular requires builders to use equipment in its factory to build its turbine-powered, pressurized aircraft. Lancair also allows buyers to do some of the work at its Redmond facility. Both makers use advanced composite materials for the fuselage and wings.
The construction techniques used by Lancair and Epic are not new, and Epic?s high-performance, six-seat LT has been around for about three years.
Paskiewicz said before the committee finished its work last month, ?the FAA suspected that there were too many prefabricated parts going into the kits,? suggesting that buyers were barely touching some parts of their planes. And if the buyers didn?t assemble their planes, the agency worries they don?t know how to maintain them. But the agency didn?t have enough information to change its policies, he said.
Lancair?s Bartels said earlier this week that such explanations from the FAA don?t hold water, since the agency has known for years about how much more advanced kit planes have become.
?For them to now come back in and say, ?Let?s take a closer look at it? is disingenuous,? Bartels said.
Dan
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