AircraftOwner Online

Aviations Dirty Little Secret-
By Michael Leighton

Last week, I watched as an RV-6, one of the most popular homebuilts ever designed, crashed on takeoff from my home field. The engine quit at an estimated altitude of just over 200 feet AGL, and the aircraft spun into the lake at the end of the runway. The pilot, a well liked and experience aviator, did not survive. That was the second fatal accident and the third serious accident of an experimential aircraft based at my little airport since the beginning of the year.
The dirty little seceret of general aviation is that experimental aircraft have a disporportionately higer fatal accident rate then the rest of the G.A. fleet. Further, they display a disproportiionately higher percentage of accidents attirbuted to mechnical failure, 28% , with more than 9% attributed to "unknown" causes. These are not my numbers, they are published by the EAA. AOPA publishes the NALL report, another telling document that echos these findings. NTSB's accident file database carries detailed accounts of many of these accidents.
The insurance companies are keenly aware of this. The F.A.A. has recently announced a study due to concern about handling characterisitics of homebuilt aircraft ( read experimental aircraft).  What no one has asked, or answered is why?
Are the handling qualities really the issue? Or is it the nature of the homebuilt aircraft? More emphysis on construction, less on flight?
While I have flown many types of homebuilts, and even owned one, I am not in that world. I want to hear from those who are.
Is this a flight training issue or an aircraft design issue?