This talk will cover a hacker’s perspective of building your own aircraft, what I consider to be the ultimate maker/hacker project. Over 10 years ago, I decided to see if I could build an aircraft from a set of plans. The model I chose was a 4 seat AeroCanard FG, a somewhat controversial derivative of the Cozy Mark IV. The Cozy itself was also a derivative, basically a widened version of the Burt Rutan designed Long EZ. This talk will cover why someone would choose to build their own aircraft. All of these topics will cover the risk as I see it as a professional who has been in the information risk field his entire professional career.- I will break this talk down into the following topics.- FAA and the 51% rule- Plans vs Kits- Composite vs riveted aluminum construction- Making changes to tested designs- Engine selection, aviation engines vs conversions- Avionics selectionI will complete the talk with some discussion around becoming a test pilot, what you will become when you finally fly your creation.