On Jun 29, 9:13=A0pm, PS wrote:
I just purchased a glider that has a Special Airworthiness Cert.,
Experimental Category, Exhibition and Racing. The "Date of Issuance"
was 5/6/1983, as was the Operating Limitations and log entry. To the
right of the Issuance date on the certificate is the "Expiry" which
shows one year later as 5/5/1984. The operating limitations makes no
mention of an expiration, in fact it has the paragraph stating that "no
person shall operate... unless condition inspections are done in the
preceding 12 months" (which would be for the second and future years),
and it mentions condition inspections (plural) are to be recorded. The
entry in the log by the same FAA Rep. makes no mention
of an expiration.

This would have me think that the intent of the FAA representative was to
make the certificate of unlimited duration as I would expect. The FAA
database also shows no problems that I can tell, such as an expired
airworthiness certificate. Is this typical to have an "Expiry" date on
the cert. or do I have an issue? I hate to lose my loose operating
limitations by having to apply again. Can anyone explain?
********
Buy the FAA records on the plane and see if it got a new Airworthiness at
some time. If not, you should be able to apply for a new airworthiness
certificate. Try to get them to leave the limitations as they are, but
don't be surprised if you get stuck with the current limitations which
require a yearly program letter, etc.

Not too long after the moratorium came into effect, I was able to get
ammended limitations on one of my gliders to put the gross weight back up
where it had been before the most recent set was issued. Didn't get the
requirement for a program letter. Maybe you can have similar luck.

But as it stands now, in the eyes of the FAA, if your airworthiness
certificate has an expiration date in the past, and you don't have a
subesquent one, your airplane is not airworthy.

Steve