OK guys, The airplane "WAS" a 120. It is being highly modified and is
quite beefed up structurally. It will be registered in the homebuilt
catagory. I guess that gives me a green light to do what I feel is
necessary to it. The owner maintenance thing is a lot more restrictive
than most people realize. You do not have "carte blanch" like we do in
the homebuilt field. I think I will take your advice and truly
experiment. Thanks for the input, much appreciated. Kevin, just where
are you from? I suspect that it is quite close to me.

Kevin Horton wrote in message ...
On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 00:24:02 -0400, Morgans wrote:


"Dan Thomas" wrote

It's a category called "Owner-Maintenance," designed to keep
those older airplanes flying even though parts are hard to find. The
airplane essentially becomes a homebuilt. There are drawbacks: no
flights into the U.S., for instance.
I don't think he should bother with any engine offsets to start
with. The Cessan 172 uses none, like many others. Bigger concern would
be the strength of the structure. The 120 was a pretty light airplane.

Dan

I would think replacing an engine with a totally different one, and not
certified for anything, would go "a bit" beyound owner maintenance. Or is
nothing too far for this category?

Pretty much anything goes in the Owner Maintenance category. The
premise is that many older aircraft are very hard to keep airworthy, if
you have to use approved parts. Many of the manufacturers no longer
exist, so it can be hard to find parts that have a proper paper trail.
So, in Canada, the Owner Maintenance (OM) category was created, which
allows the owner to do whatever he wants, including engine changes, etc.
OM is only available if the aircraft type is on the offical list.

Once you move an aircraft in OM category, it is no longer eligible for a
normal Certificate of Airworthiness, so it cannot be flown outside Canada,
unless the other country provides a specific authorization. It is very
difficult to move an OM aircraft back to the type certificated category.

Lots more info at:

http://www.copanational.org/non-members/om.htm
http://www.tc.gc.ca/OntarioRegion/civilaviation/manufacturing/recav/owner.htm