A. Paul Paulikas bought his Downers Grove home because he could get his canoe in and out of the basement.
”It was an important consideration,” says Paulikas, who is building an airplane with a fuselage roughly the size of a canoe in his cellar. ”I went house-hunting with the canoe knowing that if it fit in, I could get my finished airplane out.”
While most people are content to pilot the telephone and make airline reservations, Paulikas is one of a growing number of fliers who have chosen to build their own airplane.
Virtually every such ”home-builder” will tell you about the hours in seclusion, usually in a basement or garage, welding, sanding, gluing and bolting together the many parts of an aircraft in hopes of one day sitting at the controls of his or her own creation.
”It`s a thrill to fire up and fly something you`ve built,” says Paulikas, a veteran home-builder on his second plane.
Some 35,000 people around the country share his enthusiasm, according to estimates by the Experimental Aircraft Association, a support organization for aviation enthusiasts, including home-builders.
”The number of people building their own plane is growing steadily,”
says Tom Poberezny, president of the Oshkosh, Wis.-based organization. ”Every day, somebody starts building a plane.”
According to EAA figures, 60,000 to 100,000 home-built airplanes are in various stages of construction throughout the country, up from 30,000 to 45,000 planes five years ago. The EAA, says Poberezny, bases its figures on the number of home-built planes registered with the Federal Aviation Administration.
”The FAA has about 20,000 home-built planes on its register right now,” says Poberezny. ”At present, three to five times that number are in the process of being built.”
The lack of commercially built single-engine airplanes partially explains the recent increase in the number of home-builders. In the last 10 years, escalating liability expenses have forced many manufacturers, including Cessna, Beechcraft and Piper, to cut drastically or stop making small, single- engine planes.
”We ceased production in 1986 because product liability was too high,”
says Cessna spokesman Dean Humphrey. ”The company would love to get back into the business, but lawsuits are just too financially draining.”
The lack of suppliers also reduces the diversity in plane designs.
”Many people who would like to buy planes can`t find one they like, so they build their own,” says Poberezny. Other people, he says, build their own planes because they are less expensive than those that are factory-built. Depending on the model, engine and electronics, a single-seat, single-engine plane can be built for less than $10,000. Most cost from $10,000 to $15,000. Radios, lighting and other sophisticated electrical equipment add to the price.
Ultralights, an aircraft similar to a hang glider with an engine that does little more than get a person airborne, can be built for less than $2,000.
Home-built planes are most often used for personal transportation because their small size limits their capability in terms of passengers, baggage and range. A single-seater, for example, is at the low end of building time, price and speed, with flying speeds of 70 to 80 miles per hour.
Most home-built planes can travel at about 160 m.p.h. A high-performance, cross-country cruiser can travel at more than 200 m.p.h. That compares with commercial planes, which travel at roughly 500 m.p.h.
Because most home-builders snatch time after work or on the weekends to build their planes, construction time is thought of in hours rather than days or months. Though the length of the project generally is determined by the difficulty of the aircraft and the skill of the builder, it is not unusual for the home-builder to spend 1,000 to 2,000 hours on a project.
”That`s why builders don`t need to buy all the parts at once,” says Jerome Hediger, manager of Wicks Airport Supplies in Highland, Ill. ”If they won`t get around to putting on the wings for another year or two, the builders can save the money now by buying piecemeal.” Wicks is a distributor of aircraft parts and raw materials, such as tubing, wood, fiberglass and metal, needed to build a plane.
Given the relaxed pace of some builders, it`s hard to imagine that they seek anything but pleasure from the hands-on project. Paulikas, for example, bought plans and a package of materials filled with enough parts to start his plane almost 10 years ago, but he still is several hundred hours away from completion.
”Life keeps interrupting,” he says. ”My family, the house and my job always came first. The plane is recreation.”
Aviation enthusiasts have two options when it comes to construction:
making a plane from a set of plans or buying a prepackaged kit.
Plan builders, who often want the freedom to tinker with a design, buy plans from one source and then scour suppliers for parts. Kit-builders buy plans and the necessary parts from a single source, usually the plane`s designer.
Kit-building is thought to be easier, less time-consuming and thus more popular, because some parts of the plane-such as the fuselage in many cases-come preassembled. Kit-builders, however, often stray from the kit`s plans to make personal changes. This is known as ”kit-bashing.”
Dan Denney of SkyStar Aircraft in Nampa, Idaho, makes one of the industry`s most popular kit planes, the Kitfox. Last year, the company sold about 500 kits for the Kitfox, a two-seater designed with a 1930s look, including a round nose and wings above the fuselage.
”We tell people that if you can use basic hand tools-a screwdriver, hammer and wrench-you won`t have much trouble building a kit plane,” says Denney, the plane`s designer.
Some kits come with instructional videotapes, though SkyStar doesn`t offer one for the Kitfox.
Working from scratch or by kit, builders must complete at least 51 percent of the plane to qualify for the FAA`s amateur-built classification status needed to fly the plane. Under FAA rules, planes in this
classification, also known as experimental licensing status, cannot be used commercially. But like a car, the plane can be used for personal
transportation in connection with business.
Some home-builders don`t start from scratch, but restore an antique plane or take over a project in mid-construction.
Melvin D. Forrester of Mendota, Ill., purchased a partially completed airplane from a home-builder in Florida who was too busy to finish the project.
”I bought it from a picture,” says Forrester. ”Then I went South with a truck and a trailer to bring it home. When I picked it up it was mostly a pile of wood and fiberglass.”
Whatever state of repair-or disrepair-a plane is in, builders who belong to the EAA can tap into an international network of experts for help. With approximately 130,000 members and some 700 chapters around the world, EAA bills itself as a ”grass-roots” organization, offering technical counseling to amateur aircraft builders.
Many airplane builders recommend joining EAA before starting any work.
”I`m not a craftsman and have to struggle with each piece,” says Ed Davis, a home-builder and commercial pilot from Naperville. ”It`s almost not fair for me to say I`ve built the plane myself because of all the help I`ve gotten from my EAA connections.”
Unlike Paulikas and Forrester, who have turned their basements into mini- aircraft machine shops, Davis rents a hangar at Clow International Airport in Bolingbrook for $300 a month to work on his plane. Davis moved his plane to Clow in June after it outgrew his basement.
”Home was good for about two years, but then the wings and the fuel tanks had to go on together, so I needed more space as well as a place to work safely.”
Restoring planes is more often a hobby than a gold mine for most enthusiasts, as the results are usually financially unrewarding.
For example, Davis, who is working on a kit plane, is drawing on experience gained in his earlier restoration of a 1946 antique flyer, which he bought for $10,000 and sold for $18,000. On paper, it may look like he made a profit from the sale, but the parts and labor required for the restoration, says Davis, sapped any gain.
Forrester bought a single-engine aircraft for $4,500, restored it with the help of a few friends and later sold the plane for $14,000.
”With the time and effort we put into the project, the amount we made from the sale was negligible,” says Forrester. ”Some guys can make a few bucks, but you don`t do it for money; you do it because you love it.”
Forrester`s passion for airplanes began in 1970, when a cousin introduced him to flying. Like most home-builders, Forrester is a pilot. ”Once you learn to fly, you then want to build your own plane,” he says.
Sometimes, a sincere desire to build a plane isn`t enough to complete the project. Ron Bradley of Woodridge has sold two planes in mid-construction after developing allergic reactions to adhesive chemicals.
”I always took precautions, wearing gloves and long-sleeved shirts, but my hands and arms would always break out in rashes,” says Bradley.
Yet a nagging desire to captain his own plane has prompted Bradley, a pilot for 12 years, to try again. In March, he purchased another kit.
”I`ve talked to people who own the plane, and I think this one should be OK,” he says.
Talking to the owners of a plane that has caught one`s fancy is common for many prospective buyers.
One of the easiest ways to meet home-builders, particularly in large groups, is to attend an industry ”Fly-In,” the aviation equivalent to a boat show or auto rally. Fly-Ins are organized for aviation enthusiasts to see new products, attend educational seminars and view the aircrafts of other participants. The EAA hosts the country`s largest Fly-In each summer on the grounds of its Oshkosh headquarters.
Those interested in scouting for the latest and greatest planes also can subscribe to EAA`s monthly magazine, Sport Aviation. A good source for builders on tight budgets is Trade-A-Plane, a national publication filled with classified ads for planes and parts, new and used.
Safety is a top concern for home-builders; for the most part, home-built planes generally are safer than cars, says James F. Nelson, vice president of underwriting for Avemco Insurance Co. in Frederick, Md. Nelson says the craftsmanship and care that goes into most projects, as well as their compliance with FAA standards, help ensure the safety of most planes and keep insurance rates in check.
”The pilot`s experience and the model of the plane are taken into consideration when determining (the) price (of insurance),” says Nelson.
The cost of plane insurance is not much more than auto insurance. The Kitfox, for example, can receive full coverage for accidents on the ground and to the pilot for about $1,100 annually, says Nelson. ”Home-builders generally don`t insure the plane, because they can rebuild it on their own,” he says.
After construction and insurance, most of the plane`s expense comes from storage, takeoff fees and fuel. Owners can expect to pay from $50 to $250 monthly for hangar space and roughly $30 to $40 per flight at small, local airports, such as Meigs Field in Chicago. The price for storage can be stemmed by opting for tie-downs and a tarp to cover the cabin instead of renting enclosed space. Fuel at Meigs costs approximately $2.50 a gallon.
Once a person has finished an airplane and is ready to fly it, the owner must apply for an identification number, or ”N” number, from the FAA Aircraft Registry in Oklahoma City; the fee is $5 for a random number and $15 for a vanity number. Owners must then file for an airworthiness inspection by the FAA.
Owners must inspect their planes annually and keep a log of all work done on the plane. And while the FAA generally is not involved in the inspection process once the airworthiness certificate is granted, home-built planes are subject to random inspections by Flight Standards, a division of the FAA, says Joe Pisella, an FAA inspector.
Owners of handmade planes not self-built must hire a certified airframe and powerplant (A&P) mechanic for the plane`s annual inspection, and that can cost from $500 to $1,500.
Yet most home-builders don`t seem to mind the time and expense that goes into plane construction and maintenance.
”I live and breathe my plane, so all the time and money is definitely worth it,” says Davis. ”I`m already dreaming about my next plane, and I haven`t even finished this one yet.”
