Glider Assembly without Mech. Signoff?

[Jim Newton]

Can anyone tell me where in the FAR's or other official documents, a glider
pilot is allowed to assemble his glider without having a certified aircraft
mechanic sign off in the log book?
Jim

[Bruce Greeff]

Jim Newton wrote:
> Can anyone tell me where in the FAR's or other official documents, a glider
> pilot is allowed to assemble his glider without having a certified aircraft
> mechanic sign off in the log book?
> Jim
>
>
Can't speak for the USA, but in South Africa it is regarded as part of the
normal operation of the glider to de-rig and re-assemble. No sign off required,
no special qualification, no problems or requirements - other than having enough
sense to do your control checks and daily inspection carefully afterwards...

[J.A.M.]

Neither it is in Spain. It's pilot's responsability, not legal, but common
sense!!!
You need to have the common sense to do functional checks when you rig your
glider... after all, it's your ass that's sitting on it.

good flights,
Jose M. Alvarez.
ASW-24

"Bruce Greeff" > escribió en el mensaje
...
> Jim Newton wrote:
> > Can anyone tell me where in the FAR's or other official documents, a
glider
> > pilot is allowed to assemble his glider without having a certified
aircraft
> > mechanic sign off in the log book?
> > Jim
> >
> >
> Can't speak for the USA, but in South Africa it is regarded as part of the
> normal operation of the glider to de-rig and re-assemble. No sign off
required,
> no special qualification, no problems or requirements - other than having
enough
> sense to do your control checks and daily inspection carefully
afterwards...

[CV]

Bruce Greeff wrote:
> Jim Newton wrote:
>
>> Can anyone tell me where in the FAR's or other official documents, a
>> glider
>> pilot is allowed to assemble his glider without having a certified
>> aircraft
>> mechanic sign off in the log book?
>> Jim
>>
>>
> Can't speak for the USA, but in South Africa it is regarded as part of
> the normal operation of the glider to de-rig and re-assemble. No sign
> off required, no special qualification, no problems or requirements -
> other than having enough sense to do your control checks and daily
> inspection carefully afterwards...

I can't really speak for the USA either but I seem to remember this came
up just a few weeks ago and there were a couple of posts to the effect
that rigging/derigging of gliders is in fact exempt from that requirement,
even in the US.

I think they also mentioned where this was covered but can't remember
if it was in a specific FAR, or some established precedent on how to
apply the FAR's or something else. Try googling around in recent
threads.

CV

[Jim Newton]

I found the U.S. FAA's letter on the subject!
http://www.ssa.org/ListGovtNewsDetail.asp?Action=&id=15
I'm told some FAA inspectors inquired about this and they didn't know why
signoffs were exempt! Shows that some gliding nuances are not well know by
our regulators.
Jim
"Jim Newton" > wrote in message
link.net...
> Can anyone tell me where in the FAR's or other official documents, a
glider
> pilot is allowed to assemble his glider without having a certified
aircraft
> mechanic sign off in the log book?
> Jim
>
>

[COLIN LAMB]

Chapter 6 of the FAA Glider Flying Handbook covers the assembly of a glider
and tools required. It was written by the FAA. It says nothing about an
inspection by anyone other than the pilot, after assembly and it is implicit
that only the pilot is responsible for inspection.

Likewise, the FAA conducts safety seminars which includes the installation
of wings and tail surfaces. If they could not be installed by the pilot,
they would not need to be covered.

Lastly, the Biennial Flight Review often includes assembly of the
sailplane - to assure that the pilot installs them safely.

The logic would be that if the sailplane is designed to have the wings and
tail come off in the ordinary operation of the sailplane, then it is part of
the normal operation and does not require any inspection.

Colin


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[Nolaminar]

Is there an FAR that says it is required?
If there is no governing FAR, the it's okay for us to do as we have for so
many years.
GA.

[BTIZ]

it is part of the Pilot Practical Test Standard.. does that make it
qualifying?

BT

"Nolaminar" > wrote in message
...
> Is there an FAR that says it is required?
> If there is no governing FAR, the it's okay for us to do as we have for
so
> many years.
> GA.
>

[nowhere]

Here in Canada the rigging and derigging of gliders "designed for
quick assembly" is on the list of "Elementary Work" which details the
actions which can be taken on an aircraft without the need for a
maintenence release by a licenced mechanic.

[Mark James Boyd]

In article .net>,
Jim Newton > wrote:
>I found the U.S. FAA's letter on the subject!
>http://www.ssa.org/ListGovtNewsDetail.asp?Action=&id=15
>I'm told some FAA inspectors inquired about this and they didn't know why
>signoffs were exempt! Shows that some gliding nuances are not well know by
>our regulators.

I and my FAA CFI examiner were both unaware of this until pointed
out by some wonderful folks on RAS a while back.

Boy, talk about something to be grateful to the SSA for!
They really spearheaded this to make it not be
considered maintenance, and instead include it in the CFR
as a training item. The best upside of this is that
if the glider is misassembled, this is a pilot error, and
presumably covered by pilot insurance. Can you imagine
if it were considered maintenance, and perhaps not covered?
That'd suck.

Thanks to all the RAS guys that caught this for us, recently
and many years ago...and thanks to SSA! (at least in the USA :P)

--

------------+
Mark Boyd
Avenal, California, USA