Sport Pilot Talk

Hi

I have an aircraft that is currently registered in South Africa as an Experimental Aircraft.

It started life as a Citabria, but after being written off in a crash, was completely rebuilt, with some modifications done to the fuselage. I have been maintaining it, and have made further modifications. It is inspected annually by an approved Inspector.

I would like to find out if this aircraft would qualify for the FAA standard of "Experimental" and what the rules are around "On Condition" engines.

Thanks
Etienne

I'm anything but an expert on the subject, but I haven't seen many posts on this site regarding experimental aircraft so I'll speak up. I'm currently building a kit plane, so I pay some attention to experimental end of things.

It is possible to import a non-US experimental into the US. It will require getting a new airworthyness certificate. I expect it to be quite a challenge. This sort of thing is usually covered in documents called "Advisory Circulars" They are sort of explanations or expansions of the FARs. ACs are mostly not regulations ( a few are) but rather practical guidelines on what the FAA expects and what you can expect from them. Your best bet is to look though the ACs (there are hundreds) to try to find one that describes your situation.

ACs, as well as a lot of other useful information is available from the FAA web site, faa.gov. It's one of the more usable government web sites I've run across.

Finally you might try the Experimental Aircraft Association (eaa.org). You might have to join to get access to the kind of information you seek, but if you are considering bringing an experimental into the country, it will be money well spend anyway.

Good luck,
Ron

Thanks... Our country's CAA website is about as useful as an old loaf of bread, so I'm not used to looking online for the regs I'll check it out!

As for the EAA, I'm a member of a chapter here, and they're a good bunch of people. I'll definitely be joining up , if I do end up coming over...

Thanks again, I now have a starting point to the research!

Etienne