Message-Id: <3.0.3.32.19990313003911.00a6fbe0@olsusa.com>
Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 00:39:11 -0500
To: lancair.list@olsusa.com
From: Marvin Kaye <marvkaye@olsusa.com>
Subject: Major Alterations
Mime-Version: 1.0

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Bill Bartlett pointed us to the Ellison Fluid Systems page for a pitot
switch (thanks, Bill)... while there I noticed a banner at the top of their
home page which said "Click here for an interesting court decision about
homebuilt aircraft which may affect your insurance coverage."  The link
takes you to the report of the appellate court decision in the case of
Avemco v. Davenport.  Having read that page I thought it would be a good
idea to refresh my memory as to what constituted a "major alteration" in
the eyes of the FAA.  While I couldn't find the exact document (14 CFR Part
43, Appendix A) which identifies those changes on the web, I _did_ locate a
document published by the Long Beach FSDO under the auspices of the
Aviation Safety Program entitled "MAKING A MAJOR ALTERATION DETERMINATION".
 Its purpose is to help take some of the grey area out of deciding what
does and what doesn't constitute a "Major Alteration" in the eyes of the FAA.

That being said, I would like to suggest that everyone take a look at these
two pages and tuck their URLs away for future reference...  the former as a
reminder that not getting the FAA involved after an alteration can turn
into a very expensive and protracted legal nightmare WITHOUT BENEFIT OF
YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY, and the latter as a useful guide for determining
whether said alteration is major or minor.

The court decision can be found at:
http://www.ellison-fluid-systems.com/homebuilt_court_decision.htm

The FSDO newsletter article can be found at:
http://www.awp.faa.gov/fsdo/long_beach/rel_paul.htm

(If you know of someplace on the web where I can locate Part 43, Appendix
A, please pass it along to me, as I'd like to group this list of links
under a separate heading on the LML homepage.  This is the kind of
information that we should all have readily at hand, and it would be my
pleasure to have it available at LML Central.)

Keep those posts coming!

    <Marv>