The headline on the Falco website reads, "Five Falcos Win Awards at Falco
50th Birthday". They're talking about Oshkosh - oops, I mean Airventure
2005.

The judges awarded Grand Champion Plans-built, Reserve Grand Champion
Plans-built, and two Bronze Lindys Plans-built to Falcos. The fifth award
went to a factory-built Falco for Outstanding Limited Production.

Here's what baffles me. Let me quote from the Falco website:

"The Falco's proven record and engineering puts it in a class by itself. It
was designed by Stelio Frati, one of the great aircraft designers of all
time. It was certified as a production aircraft. It was built as a
production aircraft and has a history of over 40 years of use by pilots in
Europe. Now, with many refinements, the Sequoia Falco is a modern,
state-of-the-art aircraft built from kits and flown by pilots all over the
world."

To highlight, ". . . the Sequoia Falco is a modern, state-of-the-art
aircraft *built from kits* . . ."

I saw those Falcos and they were absolutely stunning. For a KIT PLANE. I
doubt they would generally be so nice if the builder had to spend hundreds
of hours building those parts available from Falco as kits, including:

Wood Kits. . .
Wing - Spars, Ribs, Fuselage Frames
Tail Group - Spars, Ribs

Equipment. . .
Tail Group, Fuselage, Wing
Flap Control , Control System , Trim Tab Controls
Canopy, Engine Mount, Fuel Tanks, Inverted Header Tanks
Landing Gear, Nose Gear, Landing Gear Retraction
Cowling , Cowling Jig
Seats , Instrument Panel, Left Hand Throttle
Instrumentation, Electrical
Engine Controls, Baffling
Antenna Kit

The bottom line is that the basic kit for a Falco totals nearly $100,000
dollars. I can see that a percentage of that is for the materials
themselves, but a large part of it is for fabrication cost.

Again, it is not my intent to belittle the outstanding workmanship and long
hours to build one of these beauties. I simply question their classification
as a plans-built airplane.

Rich S.