Are amateur-built aircraft safe?
A. As safe as staying in bed at home? Well, that depends. Some amateur-built aircraft have excellent safety records. Others have less than perfect records. All aircraft and forms of flight have some inherent risk associated with them. Many builders and pilots fly because they don’t want to live the same boring life everyone else is doing. Its up to you to decide your risk tolerance. You can get good information on safety from the Experimental Aircraft Association. They keep excellent safety records by aircraft model in a data base, which is available upon request. Call the EAA’s Information Services section and ask for the accident data for any particular model. They keep data going back to the 1970’s, and can provide you with insight for helping you choose a project.
