Bob Glidden said "I thought building and testing to find our own aircrafts limitations was what "EXPERIMENTAL" was all about.
Actually, the EXPERIMENT" is to allow amateurs to build and fly their own airplanes. Don't interpret the EXPERIMTAL to mean you can just do anything and say it's an experiment. Choosing a Gross weight based on what you would like it to be is truly an experiment, and could have disasterous results, if you really explore the entire envelope. Wood is much less accurate than typical metal properties, and the published lower limit may well be exceeded in the wood someone else used it thier project. That doesn't mean that the wood in YOUR spars exceeds the lower limit. (For Instance). In my opinion, when the FAA (Friendly Airplane Agency) allows you to deviate from established design practices, they are not doing you a favor. You can be sure they won't help you check the limits with their B___s in the aircraft. You Tech Counselor isn't doing his job either if he ignores poor practices and proceedures. My experience however, is that must builders are doing an excellent job. I have refused to approve some. Ron Freiberger EAA TC # 4125 ---
