From: Jack Cowell [mailto:jackcowell@optonline.net]
 
 Rick Schrameck:
 
 
 
 After reading a number of posts on the amateur-built rules and Epic, I have
 some questions and observations.
 
 
 
 1)     Are you saying that the 1500shp, 350-knot, six-seater Epic being
 built at your (I'm told) impressively large facility is the same as a
 builder going through an assist program like Lancair's?
 
 
 
 2)      Does that mean that your Epic customers are going to hitch up their
 trailers or rig a truck to take their planes home and complete them?
 
 
 
    3)   Isn't possible that your Epic turboprop has pushed the FAA and its
 amateur-built rules and approval structure a bit too far?
 
 
 
 
 
 Granted, some professional builders stretch the FAA envelope, too, but most
 of these are (very) small businesses - not build facilities with millions of
 dollars of investment capital targeted at the development and manufacture of
 a far more complex aircraft than any complex kit a builder could actually
 make himself.  To equate Epic's build program with these one-person or very
 small builder shops and/or Lancair's builder assist program would tax even
 your considerable salesmanship capabilities. Further, remember that rules
 are always subject to interpretation, which is why we have judges and juries
 and a court system (flawed though they may be). In the case of Epic's build
 program and construction complexity, it may be this interpretation
 capability that thwarts it.
 
 
 
 All said and done, it seems to me that though it is possible that the recent
 notification by the FAA has, as you say, "Nothing to do with Epic",
 nevertheless aircraft like Epic will be scrutinized extremely thoroughly if
 they continue to try to get approvals resulting in airworthiness
 certificates as amateur-built, experimental aircraft.