Excuse the long post. Can you buzzards give me some opinions? I live in the Northeast, but have my completed MiniMax 1100 at Cannon Creek airpark in Lake City Florida. My wife and I have decided to sell the hangar/apartment. We just can't make that dream work.
    So, I have a taxied but never flown MiniMax with all accessories, Rotax 447 with a few hours of break in time, PowerFin 3 blade prop, BRS 600 (needs repack this month), spare parts, electronics, extra wood, helmet, gas containers,extra oil, the trailer I brought the partially completed Max to Florida with, the whole megillah, and I need to find a home for everything.
    I could not find a thread on personal liability if someone is injured in a Max they did not build. What is the jeopardy for the seller? There must be a way or our planes would never change hands.
    If this link to a photo album [https://picasaweb.google.com/Bantam1/MinimaxBuildingProgress] does not work, google "Minimax Building progress" to see the plane. You can also search past posts from me.
    No fun giving up on all the effort that went into the project, but there you go.

   Here's a link to a video of the hangar/apartment [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_-xjf7rsJU&feature=youtu.be]if you want to move to a great airpark.

    MM Tom

   By the way, I routed the starter cord into the cockpit like George, works very well.

Tom,

As long as there are lawyers there will never be a release form that is guaranteed 100% safe. In my former EAA club there were a lot of partnerships and a lot of airplanes that changed hands. We also had several lawyers in the club that helped come up with release forms. Make sure your buyer signs a (witnessed) release. Include in the form words to the effect that the airplane is "experimental" and "amateur built". Include a sentence that the buyer is aware of these facts and freely assumes any and all responsibility for all risks involved in the maintenance and operation of the airplane.  That will not prevent any future lawsuit but will put the burden of proof on the buyer in the event of a future accident. Some have advocated "parting out" their planes to circumvent liability. You could still be sued for providing a "defective" part. Anybody can sue for anything, all it takes is a willing lawyer and those are a dime a dozen. 99.99% of your prospective buyers are decent people who are buying for the love of flying and willingly assume the risks. If we live life in constant fear then the low life lawyers will win. (not knocking all lawyers, just the bottom feeders).

There is no pat answer to your question.  This issue has been raised many times at EAA seminars and different people within the organization will give different answers.  On the one hand, you, as the manufacturer of your airplane, potentially have the same manufacturer's liability that Cessna or Piper would.  As a practical matter there is a different expectation with an experimental amateur built airplane.  Furthermore, I assume that you have less money for attorneys to go after than Cessna or Piper do.

There have been no successful cases of anyone enforcing a manufacturer's liability claim against the builder of an experimental amateur built airplane that I know of.  There is a certain amount of solace that can be gained from that.  On the other hand, someone someday may be the first one to change that precedent.

Lots of info here:

http://www.avweb.com/news/avlaw/181900-1.html

http://members.eaa.org/home/ho.....20a%20Homebuilt.html

http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=85489017001

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I am a little surprised that the liability issue has not really been resolved.
If I had a place to store the plane, it would be tempting to hold on to it to see if electric power/battery improvement will
lead to an electric Max. Be fun to be part of that.
MMTom

get yourself a small container or enclosed trailer and it can be stored there....

Short Story. This was related to me by Andy Johnson the Chief Engineer of Roto-Master Inc. (a turbocharger manufacture*), the company owned Rajay Turbos back in the 80s when this happened. There was a fatal accident (I don't recall make and model). The family's lawyers (bottom feeders) were suing everyone who made aircraft parts for GA, even sued Bendix, who didn't even have a part on the plane. Our Chief Engineer was called in before the FAA, NTSB, the lawyers and GOD. On the table before him was a mass of melted aluminum, and was told that the part that caused the accident was in there and he was to explain what happened. He started peeling back the layers of melted aluminum until he got down the the offending part, he looked at it and said, "yep, you're right...there's the cause" and turned and walked out. It was a carburetor.  


*There is a company now that claims to be the same Roto-Master company from the 80's, it isn't. Name only.

Disassemble the aircraft, sell the engine and propeller separately with no log books. The purchaser must then reassemble the aircraft. Any mistakes or on the buyer. Worked for me.

this is an old Post. Solved years ago.