Despite recent crashes, homebuilt plane pilots remain enthusiastic

Three thousand feet above the Cumberland County woodlands, lodged tightly in the cockpit of the Glasair III he took seven years to build, pilot Dick Pettigrew circled the site of a recent experimental-plane crash that claimed two lives.

As he gazed through the rain-streaked windshield, past the three GPS systems guiding his two-seat plane, the Moorestown resident considered the risks inherent to a hobby he took up late in life.

"Flying is not innately dangerous, but it's not very forgiving," said Pettigrew, whose recent recreational flight took him over the site. "You have to be careful."

Following four experimental-plane crashes in recent weeks that left five people dead in South Jersey, local pilots say their desire to fly is still strong. But when federal investigators reveal the crashes' probable causes, pilots say, they will pore over the reports, searching for any risks they might look to avoid.

"Aviation is fairly unusual in the sense that all the accidents are recorded," Pettigrew said. "You can easily look through them and make some assessment of how to not do the things being recorded."

The first crash in the series occurred June 20, when a homebuilt Harmon F-1 Rocket carrying an Atlantic City police officer and his wife went down in the parking lot of the Belleplain Fire Department in Cape May County. Both were killed.

Two days later, two Gloucester County men died when their plane, a former Czech military training jet, crashed shortly after takeoff from the Millville Municipal Airport. On July 5, a homebuilt Van's Aircraft RV-7 plane fell into a Neptune river, killing the pilot.

And Sunday, a 70-year old-pilot and his 67-year-old passenger emerged without serious injury when their homebuilt plane ran out of fuel and crashed on the front lawn of a Winslow Township home.

Each of the four planes was designated experimental by the Federal Aviation Administration. Homebuilt planes make up a majority of the experimental fleet, but the designation also applies to craft used for research, racing or exhibition, as was the case with the former Czech military plane.

FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac said it was too early to consider whether the crashes indicated anything more than coincidence.

"Every accident is evaluated on its own merit," she said. "If the [National Transportation Safety] Board sees any type of similarities or trends, they look at that, but at this point it would be too premature to say."

Several agencies study aviation safety, and as NTSB accident data is overlaid with FAA aircraft registration data and then interpreted by various groups, even experts agree the results can be confusing.

"I've been working with this stuff for 15 years, and sometimes you want to say, 'Where is there a number that we can all get together on?' " said Dick Knapinski, spokesman for the Experimental Aircraft Association, a 170,000-member organization based in Oshkosh, Wis.

He said the overall accident rates of homebuilt planes have declined through the years along with those of general aviation planes, a category that includes all but commercial and military aircraft.

While the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association found in its 2007 accident report that the number of homebuilt plane accidents was increasing gradually, Knapinski said the sizeable growth of the homebuilt fleet - an increase of 64 percent between 1995 and 2007 - meant accident rates were dropping.

He cited studies by the FAA and NTSB showing homebuilt aircraft have an accident rate less than 1 percent higher than the general aviation fleet. A spokesman for the FAA could not confirm the statistics but said the Experimental Aircraft Association was considered highly reliable.

Homebuilt plane crashes accounted for 15.5 percent of general aviation crashes in 2006, when the planes made up a little more than 10 percent of the total fleet, indicating a slightly worse safety record than general aviation as a whole, said Chris Dancy, an AOPA spokesman.

According to data provided by the NTSB, New Jersey saw 19 accidents of homebuilt planes and 231 total general aviation airplane accidents from 1998 to 2007. Across the river in Pennsylvania, there were 39 homebuilt plane accidents and 287 general aviation airplane accidents during the same years.

Nationwide, NTSB figures for homebuilt planes show the number of fatal accidents is the same for 1997 and 2007 - 59 - varying only slightly in the intervening years. Neither the national nor the state numbers show a clear trend.

The term experimental can cause misperceptions about the safety record of homebuilt planes, most of which are built from well-tested kits and flown by experienced pilots, Knapinski said.

All experimental planes must be inspected by the FAA, and all pilots must maintain the same federal pilot training as other general aviation pilots, he said.

"I think the term experimental conjures up things in people's minds, that these are cutting edge, one-of-a-kind, untested aircraft," Knapinski said. "That, for the most part, is not accurate."

Homebuilt plane aficionados have long discussed the merits of pushing for a different categorization - one that doesn't include the word experimental - but have never seriously pursued the matter, he said.

Americans, he noted, have been building their own planes since the start of the 20th century. "The Wright brothers were the first homebuilts," he said.

People began purchasing plans to build their own planes in the 1920s. By the late 1970s, the standardization of airplane parts led to an increased popularity in homebuilt kits, he said.

The homemade variety of airplanes became even more popular in the 1980s, when a number of companies ceased production of small planes, saying they could not afford the unlimited liability that then applied to all small aircraft. Though manufacturer liability was limited by a 1994 law, the popularity of homebuilt craft continues, Knapinski said.

The FAA licenses more than 29,000 homebuilt aircraft, a number that increases by about 1,000 aircraft each year, Knapinski said. Homebuilt experimental planes make up between 10 and 15 percent of all general-aviation planes.

Insurance rates for amateur-built planes, like those for vintage or custom cars or boats, are generally slightly higher than rates for standard manufactured vehicles, said Bob Mackey, senior vice president for Falcon Insurance Agency in Oshkosh.

These higher premiums are due not to a difference in accident rates but to the higher costs of repairing crafts that can include rare or advanced parts, he said.

Roland Arthur, a flight instructor at South Jersey Regional Airport in Lumberton, said regulation of homebuilt planes was at the right level - but he might not fly in just anyone's plane.

"I think homebuilt airplanes are as safe as the person who manufactures it," Arthur said.

Pilot Pettigrew said he often looked at published accident reports, many of which, he said, indicate avoidable errors.

"It's a depressingly similar story every time," said Pettigrew, 59, who retired after 30 years in engineering for Rohm & Haas. "Everyone says 'it won't happen to me,' but it's depressing."

He said the recent crashes would do little to dissuade pilots who have spent years building planes and learning to fly.

Down the road at Flying W Airport Resort in Medford, manager Mindy Redner said the accidents would likely prompt additional caution among an already safety-conscious flying community.

Owners of homebuilt planes have real motivation to proceed with care from the moment they open an airplane kit.

"Most people who build them are going to fly them," Redner said. "It makes them even more careful."