If form 8130-12 said the the person submitting the form built the major portion of the project how can you get around that when it is so far along?
What the FAA requires for "amateur built" is specified in the regs. "Major portion" refers to the 51% amateur rule, not to a specific individual. There are basically two sets of rules. One set for scratch-built, like a Sonerai, and another set for "kit-built", like the Sonex. One could also say that there are two other unstated rules: one set for rich builders and another set for those who are generally more strapped for cash and don't own corporations. For a description of how the "Rich rule" works, visit the Lancair Evolution website, which describes how they massage the 51% rule to enable a "builder" (Including a LLC) to "build" a pressurized, retractable, $1.5 million "experimental" carbon fiber turbine aircraft that flies nearly 400 mph at FL28, with six weeks of actual work:
http://www.evolutionaircraft.com/faq/
The FAA probably deals with an Evolution team that includes several lawyers who have successfully gotten the FAA to agree what the amateur-built rules mean for the Evolution kit. On the other hand, we lowly Sonerai builders generally go one-on-one with the DAR. Coffee and donuts may help. John, above, said that in 1992, the inspector didn't even look. I think times may have changed, but maybe not.
So, here is a suggestion for how to buy a non-registered, lacking an airworthy certificate, experimental "aircraft" that is say, 95% complete
from a builder who is afraid of liability or reluctant to turn over the build logs that
you are going to need if your inspector is not happy doing just a one-donut once over. If you need that log and you don't have it, your certification is toast:
1. Contact the builder of the aircraft being built and say that you are interested in building it to finish certification and registration in your name only and you are willing to reimburse the seller for the materials at an agreed price. Since the aircraft is not built 100%, any portion that you build is a contribution to building 51% of an amateur-built aircraft. Have a discussion of the following and get an agreement.
2. Conceptually, you want the seller to understand that they may be, and should be, proud of their skills, but that you are not offering to buy any of that skilled work. You are interested only in documenting that you are purchasing materials as agreed, that happen to be stuck together. Offer to sign a contract with the 95% builder, that
reimburses the 95%er for the
COST of materials and
the build log. You must buy both of them. (Keep in mind that your purchase cost of the materials from the 95%er is not going to = the original cost of the materials. It's going to = the price of what the 95%er wants from you for those materials, which is probably going to = more like what the seller wanted for the "nearly complete aircraft". Perfectly legal. Happens a billion times a day all over the world. (Like the $500 titanium bike frame made in China, that is imported unchanged and sold for $5000 in the US by a retailer).
That makes you the owner of the stuck-together
materials and the build log. You could put an "AS IS" disclaimer in there if need be: ("Name" makes no warranty of the quality of the materials or the quality of work performed by "Name", an amateur builder, in helping to assemble the materials or documenting the build log). The materials may look substantially like an aircraft, but in the eyes of the FAA, it's not an aircraft until the FAA says it is. The materials are just materials that can be assembled, disassembled, and reassembled as often as necessary. (How many times are rivets drilled out and rebucked? Welds cut apart and re-welded? FAA does not care on amateur built- it is expected and even encouraged - e.g. EAA workshops). This contract can remain private and is not part of the process of getting the project's airworthiness certificate. On the other hand, you should use that materials purchase list to document your purchase of the materials from the 95%er. Just don't assign any prices for weldments or other assembly work. You are just buying
materials at an agreed price. Whether the longeron is welded into an assembly is irrelevant, you still have to buy four of them. Of course, you are going to carefully inspect the materials, the project, to satisfy yourself that they are what they are represented to be. Then move the "materials" and build log to another hanger or garage with your own lock after you pay for them.
3. Perform and document the other 5% of the work, which should ideally be done with the 95% builder who knows the materials you have just purchased along with the build log. You could pay for that time. Or just finish it yourself. Either way makes you a truthful builder who is adding your work to the 51% build and to the build log.
4. Register the aircraft in your name as the builder.
5. Obtain the airworthiness inspection by arranging for the inspection and supplying the necessary forms that certify you are "the builder" and document the amateur build with the logs and materials purchased.
That should satisfy the FAA. You do not need to use the FAA build form to document the build. The build log will do, especially one with photos.
Because the 95%er has not built or sold "an aircraft", there is no liability to you or anyone else for a "faulty" aircraft, and the FAA should be happy because you have documented your build of an amateur built aircraft with materials and build log as referenced earlier:
https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_20-27G.pdf
If the 95%er won't transfer the build log, I'd pass on it because the risk of inspection failure is nearly 100% if your inspector demands to see it and you don't have it.