On Aug 5, 8:29*am, jb92563 wrote:

With a certified aircraft you tend to post phone maintenance due to
cost and mechanic availability many times figuring that if you meet
the
letter of the laws you are still OK, but with an experimental you are
free to repair things as they get worn and you will
end up with a better maintained aircraft, and therefore safer in my
opinion.

Not true in my experience. I have owned one standard airworthiness
glider, one experimental glider, and been in partnership on 2 standard
airworthiness airplanes. The level of maintenance I have done on the
airplanes is far greater than on either glider because they require
much more maintenance.

If you are a competent mechanic, and have a good relationship with the
AI or A&P that will sign off either the maintenance or the next
inspection, there is essentially no difference between the maintenance
work a competent owner can do on standard vs experimental.

So far I have found no advantage to being experimental except perhaps
for better availability of persons qualified to perform the
inspection. The known downsides to experimental are the program
letter and its associated restrictions and the possible loss of
coverage under a life insurance policy. (quite likely to be a factor
for someone with a young family).

Andy