"So you build your VTOL tilt-wing, and you somehow manage to get it right. It works, and it's reliable, and it burns 5 gallons an hour of car gas... you're a hero. It passes the usual 40 hours for the FAA. It passes the additional 40 hours that a terrified FAA FSDO office has tacked on. So you triumphantly pull it out of the garage and get ready to fly. Here's who shows up at that moment:
• The Insurance company, who will not insure you to fly it out of your driveway.
• The Neighbors, who are suing you for public nuisance, noise, and propeller/rotor blades spinning near their children.
• The City Council, being held at gunpoint by the local realtors, who see property values plummeting.
• The TV reporters, ready to scare the crap out of everyone within 100 miles for fun and profit (bubonic vermin scum).
• The Tax Assessor, who is quickly calculating how to re-classify your home as a profitable airport.
• The City Attorney, escorted by the Zoning Commission, who are ready to cite you for operating an un-permitted airport.
• The Mayor, who is using this heinous public hazard as a launching platform for media coverage in his run for Governor.
• The FAA, (having seen everything above) who has now wisely decided to "amend" the operating limitations on your airworthiness certificate.
• Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who are bellowing about how this is a clear example of class warfare and oppression of the downtrodden by the 1%.
All attempts at humor aside, the pay-off for all the time/money/effort of building a VTOL aircraft may not ever be able to be enjoyed. The technical achievement and triumph is certainly worthy of praise, but there is a tremendous probability that some homebuilder's lifetime of effort will be misplaced and wasted."
—homebuiltairplanes.com user “Victor Bravo”
• The Insurance company, who will not insure you to fly it out of your driveway.
• The Neighbors, who are suing you for public nuisance, noise, and propeller/rotor blades spinning near their children.
• The City Council, being held at gunpoint by the local realtors, who see property values plummeting.
• The TV reporters, ready to scare the crap out of everyone within 100 miles for fun and profit (bubonic vermin scum).
• The Tax Assessor, who is quickly calculating how to re-classify your home as a profitable airport.
• The City Attorney, escorted by the Zoning Commission, who are ready to cite you for operating an un-permitted airport.
• The Mayor, who is using this heinous public hazard as a launching platform for media coverage in his run for Governor.
• The FAA, (having seen everything above) who has now wisely decided to "amend" the operating limitations on your airworthiness certificate.
• Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who are bellowing about how this is a clear example of class warfare and oppression of the downtrodden by the 1%.
All attempts at humor aside, the pay-off for all the time/money/effort of building a VTOL aircraft may not ever be able to be enjoyed. The technical achievement and triumph is certainly worthy of praise, but there is a tremendous probability that some homebuilder's lifetime of effort will be misplaced and wasted."
—homebuiltairplanes.com user “Victor Bravo”