"Rich S." wrote in message
. ..
"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in message
...

. . .Now, if you want to build one of these yourself, and you can
build anything you want, BTW, the FAA really only looks to see if it was
put together properly, then off you go and more power to you.

You must have a real generous FAA office. Nine years ago (before DAR's
came in to the picture) the FAA "inspector" who checked my airplane was
only interested in seeing that the paperwork was complete and that the
required placards, registration numbers, and signage was in compliance. He
checked nothing else and when I specifically asked his opinion of an
aileron control cable bellcrank, he commented that it was "nicely done".
There were no safety wires or cotter pins installed yet, as it was going
be disassembled for the trip to the airport.

Years before that, I knew a couple of the inspectors in the SEA FSDO. They
were knowledgeable gentlemen who would, according to the rules, sign off
anything you built - even if it was cast from concrete. However, they
would contact members of the local EAA chapter to try to talk some sense
into the builder. If that failed, they would establish rules for the test
period which would make it impossible for the builder to fly off his time.
That was their only loophole. Something like, "Test flying will be
conducted between the hour of sunrise until 6:00 am in the Mohave Desert".

Things have changed with a DAR's certification and liability, but the FAA
has nothing directly to do with inspection.

If I'm wrong (and things change overnight), never mind.

Rich S.

Rich: Recently a friend of mine put together an original two seat helicopter
that used a modified Lycoming engine. Note when the modification was done,
the Lycoming tag is supposed to be removed as it is no longer considered a
Lycoming engine. Makes sense to me, but not to the FAA inspectors. As I
understand it was FAA employees from the local FSDO. They insisted that
the builder comply with Lycoming ADs before they would issue the
airworthiness. Too often the job of inspecting a homebuilt is really more
work than the "Busy" bureacrat wants to do so the paper work gets all the
attention. On my ship the DAR wanted a decal showing which was was open and
close on the throttle. Number one that decal is by necessity in a place
that you can't see when in operation. Number two if you need a decal to
inform you of the proper direction of rotation of a helicopter throttle you
surely should not be in there to start with. With all that said I did see
and talk to a DAR who had his feet well on the ground and kept his critique
useful and addressed reasonable items.
I'm not sure what an airworthiness certificate in an aircraft means other
than FAA has some paper work on file that acknowledges this aircraft's
existence.

Stu