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John:

Just wanted to comment on your plane. Those Zenith 601XL's are great looking planes.

A pilot (actually an ex-airline pilot) at my small airport recently finished one. Fire engine red. Beautiful plane. Has the Garmin Glass Panel and a 296 GPS.

Unfortunately, I think he has sold it. He told me that he really enjoys building them more than flying them. With me it would be the other way 'round with a plane like THAT!

He and his buddy took off for a Zenith Owners Fly-In about three weeks ago. His buddy's plane, an STOL 801, came back but I have not seen Frank's 601XL since it left for the Fly-In...

I was getting up the nerve to ask him for a ride, too.

Oh, well...

I was considering building a Harmon Rocket in my retirement years, but it would have been too costly and I probably would have done something bad to myself or the plane when I tried to fly her for the first time.

So I settled for a C-150 instead.

I too was considering building a 601XL when I retire in 4 years. But a few things changed my mind:

1. I think there were 2 incidents of in-flight break ups. The latest one happened this summer and killed someone I knew. On top of that, the plane was a factory-built and the weather was calm. The pilot was experienced and not a hot-shot.

2. I don't have a place to do it. My garage is too small, and the hangar isn't suitable.

3. The state of KS taxes an airplane based on its market value. If I spend $30K on a kit, $30K on engine and instrument, and the plane is worth say $85K when completed, they'll tax it based on $85K. The annual property tax on a $20K C152 is over $1000. I don't want to pay over $4000 of airplane property tax per year.

So I'll stick with my 152. It'll be 30 yrs old and tax-exempted at the end of 2009. When I can no longer pass a medical, I'll give up flying or buy a used LSA.

Hung,
Have you considered moving to Texas after you retire? No property tax on aircraft! We'd love to have ya.

For several years I shared a hangar with a guy who built beautiful experimentals, He built several RV6's, but also a Harmon Rocket and an aerobatic single seater. He had an interesting strategy for dealing with the county tax collector. A homebuilt can be named anything you wish when you register it, so instead of registering his RV6 as a such, he registered it with the FAA as a "Wilson Devil Dog". Then claimed the value as he saw it. This guy was quite paranoid about after sales liability, and he built an average of one airplane every other year. When selling one of his airplanes, he would remove the engine (kept it for his next project.) That way, the airplane he sold was not flyable, and he felt could claim it was not airworthy, and he was less exposed liability wise. So in his eyes, an RV 6 was worth about $20K (sans engine) not the $60K the tax collector would find for comparables on Trade A Plane.

Bottom line, he'd claim the airplane as a $20K "Devil Dog" and the tax collector had no basis to disagree with his value. Interesting approach.

Hung,

I researched the supposed problems with the 601XL and have concluded it is not a concern, any more than any other homebuilt. Builders fall into four categories (in fact, these four stages could be applied to a lot of life's challenges):

1. They complete a small part (at Zenith you can built just the rudder), decide building is not for them, and stop the project.

2. The second type of builder completes the project without much fanfare to finish.

3. The third type gets much farther in, hits a wall in building and has to reluctantly admit that the effort is beyond them. No big deal to them. They sell what they have completed and move on.

4. The fourth type also hits a wall, but he has announced to the world that he is building a plane and cannot admit that he has failed in doing so. Instead, he looks for someone or something else to blame. One solution is to set up a hue and cry that the plane is unsafe. Yes, that's why they stopped working on it. In the internet this can take a life of its own and have a far greater effect in giving a plane a bad reputation than some isolated builder who only talks to his hanger neighbors.

In the last five years the number of fatal crashes have been small: 2 factory planes, 2 homebuilt.

I built everything in sections (rudder, elevator, horiz stabilizer, ailerons, flaps, wings, and fuselage) in a room that was 11 x 15 feet, and one wall had bookcases that took up 1 foot. For the fuselage, I had to open the door into the wash room and Jeanene let the tail stick into that space a couple of feet. So it can be built in a really small space -- but I do need room to put it together.

The taxes are a concern to me in Missouri. But it is $15K for the kit, $15K for the engine. I'll keep the instruments basic and not paint the plane at first, so I can come in at about $30K. The extra taxes over the Cessna 150 will be mitigated by the fact I can maintain and repair the plane myself.

But, your idea of buying a used plane that qualifies as a light sport plane is a way to go, too. For $10,000 or so, I can buy an enclosed proper little two-place airplane that flies at least as well as a Cub, and fly it without going through the medical. The trick is to go sport pilot before your medical is denied.

Hung - Is that a Kansas only rule or could it differ from state to state? If not, I need to check with my tax ASSessor.

That'd be Charles Hanna. Wrong county, but close enough.

Missouri, Jefferson county -- vintage vehicles include autos and airplanes. I called and asked about this a few years ago. I recall that the personal property tax was $100 a year for vehicles more than 25 years old. An auto must have been driven only a certain number of miles a year (can't recall the number of miles.) An airplane could not have been flown more than 50 hours a year.

I would if it weren't for the in-laws. My wife's family lives in Austin.

Mike,

That's the way it is in Kansas (see attached file, bullet #2 of Aircraft section). You should check with your local tax bandits.