Mark W wrote: > So tell him you are doing a "dune buggy". You are doing experimental > aircraft... the risk is yours (clearly stated in the regs... his only risk > is if he fails to provide what he advertises; i.e., if you crash after > accepting his disclaimers, you need good insurance).
If you tell him you're building an "offroad vehicle", at least you're not lying to him. As for the risk, with the system we have in the U.S. today, anybody that has anything to do with an airplane is at risk, regardless of what the regulations say. If somebody can convince a jury that the engine builder was negligent, he's going to be in financial trouble. The guy I buy my VW parts from that I use on my plane covers his ears when I start talking about airplanes, and starts singing songs and stuff. I can't blame 'em. I'm starting to get very leary of flying passengers. I can make people sign statements all day long that they won't sue me if they die, but their families still can and probably will sue, and now my wife and family suffer even if I'm gone. And if I take out a family of four in a crash, their relatives will likely sue my pants off, or at least my estate, and there is no amount of paper signing that will alleviate that possibility. I'm not trying to start any kind of political argument, but until this country revises its legal system, that's the fear we live with, and why it's stifling entrepreneurship around the country. Things are a lot different in Europe where if you sue and lose, you pay both sets of lawyers. People are a lot less likely to sue if they know it's frivolous and it's going to cost them dearly to do it if they don't win... Mark Langford, Huntsville, AL mail: N56ML "at" hiwaay.net website: www.N56ML.com
