I can certainly relate to Steve's response from NVAero after hearing mention of attorneys. I make and sell several small items for experimental aircraft and about a year ago I obtained the rights and tooling to continue making and selling pairs of cast aluminum hinges that are used on the tail surfaces of Pietenpols. Vi Kapler, the gentleman up in Minnesota who used to sell them, is up in years and didn't want the trouble and liability of making them anymore. A set of 9 pairs of hinges, 18 pieces total, sold for about $60 so that's $3.33 per part for items that are individually hand-finished from rough castings. All I wanted to do was to keep these parts in the pipeline for builders, but I was surprised at some of the responses that I got. Here's my reply to an inquiry that I just received about whether I had parts for sale:
"Well, I guess my answer to your question is "yes and no". I bought the tooling, rights, and casting blanks for the hinges from Vi Kapler with the intent of offering the parts but I'm undecided as to whether to continue offering them for sale. People just don't seem to understand that these are hand-made parts for experimental aircraft, there is no warranty, there is no assurance of suitability for the purpose, and in fact when Vi was offering them he at one time had to tell the foundry that the castings were for hinges for jewelry boxes because they didn't want anything to do with making parts for airplanes. "People email me asking for the specifications on the aluminum alloy, they ask me for load test data on the parts, they ask me for guarantees. All of this for parts that have been made the same way, with the same tooling, and used the same way, for decades and on dozens of aircraft!"This is the nature of the present liability climate, and I'm not sure how I want to proceed." No, I don't blame Steve one bit for his response. Considering that at work my time as a consulting engineer charges out at $120/hour, you can see that being in the experimental aircraft business is not about making money. Turning out nine pairs of little hinges would take about two hours, but if I charged $240 for a set of them, I'd be known all over the internet as a rip-off artist. Oscar Zuniga Medford, OR
