Corrected / current (24 June 2005) link to the FAA's "Revised Listing of
Amateur-Built Aircraft Kits" is:

http://www.faa.gov/aircraft/rec/ultr...ia/ama-kit.pdf

CV


Ron Wanttaja wrote:

Last revised on September 1, 2004. Added question on non-US homebuilding.

snip

Subject: FAA 51% Rule

|Q305: What is the 51% rule, and how does it affect me?

A: In order for an aircraft to qualify as amateur-built, at least
half the fabrication and assembly must be done for recreational
and/or educational purposes.
snip
Now the FAA maintains a list of "approved" kits that have been
proven to comply with the 51% rule. Note that a kit does *not*
need to be on the list to be legally sold, it just serves as proof
to the FAA that the type complies with the rule. Some kit
suppliers opt not to put their products on the list, the reason
being that once approved, any changes to the product require
reapproval by the FAA. If your kit is not on the list, you will
have to prove 51% compliance at inspection time.

The inspector does his job based on a set of guidelines published
in the "inspectors handbook" issued by the FAA to their field
inspectors. The guidelines for the 51% rule are established in
this handbook. All decisions made by the inspector are effectively
determinations "by the Administrator" (if you're familiar with the
FARs, you'll understand the phrase immediately .

You can download the list of kits approved under the 51% rule
from http://av-info.faa.gov/dst/amateur/ama-kit.pdf. This is
an Adobe Acrobat file; free readers are available from a number
of sources.

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[end of rec.aviation.homebuilt FAQ]