EAA Flight Test Manual (Version 2)

The EAA Flight Test Manual (Version 2) offers a comprehensive, step-by-step approach to testing your homebuilt aircraft. This manual is designed to ensure that your aircraft is thoroughly tested and understood by guiding you through each phase of the flight testing process.

What sets this program apart is the use of test cards, which break down each flight into manageable, point-by-point tasks, simplifying data collection and ensuring thorough coverage. Builders using this manual will gain a complete understanding of their aircraft's performance, handling characteristics, and limitations, as well as the data needed to create a detailed operating handbook.

For new or significantly altered designs, the manual will help you create a tailored flight-test plan. We also recommend consulting with an experienced test pilot when needed.

Thanks to EAAs advocacy on behalf of the homebuilt aircraft community, the program outlined in this manual now satisfies the FAAs Task-Based Phase I policy, as detailed in FAA Advisory Circular 90-89C. Instead of completing a traditional 25- or 40-hour flight-test period for experimental aircraft, you can follow this task-based program, and once the outlined tasks are complete, flight testing is finished.