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While I did pass my first inspection, I must admit I was
really embarrassed at the number of missing cotter pins and not tightened to
spec nuts the inspector found - and I didn't have the excuse of a short time
lead. Fortunately all were easily and quickly fixed and the inspector was
nice enough to call the problems out as he went alone, so I could come along
behind him fixing them.
By the time he had finished, so had I and I expected he
would go back and check that I had done what I was suppose to, but no, his view
was he had pointed them out to me and felt that should be sufficient - sort of
treated you like an adult - even if a bit dim-witted one {:>)
So you'll get there - and besides those inspector guys
need to re-inspect somebody every once in a while - to show they are really
doing their job {:>)
Ed
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2013 1:04 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Anatomy of a failed AW
inspection
As many of you know, I called the Greensboro
FSDO and scheduled an Airworthiness
Inspection. It was originally scheduled
for last Friday, but got postponed due
to inclement weather. Wednesday turned
out to be a shirt-sleeve day, and
perfect for an inspection inside a large,
open hangar. When I called for the
inspection, I was expecting to get a date a
couple months out. The quickness
of the schedule took me by surprise, but
being the gung-ho guy I am, I went
for it.
Three inspectors showed up. Mike
Foster, who I had been working with, and
seemed mostly concerned with paperwork. Tim,
who did most of the hardware
inspection. And Mark, who seemed
to enjoy looking at airplanes the most.
Don't bother to bring donuts and
coffee. Those guys were there for hard
line business. Wish I could get my
$23 back from Dunkin Donuts. Coffee
was crap anyway 8*)
They want the airplane in a state where they
can write you the AW and you
can immediately taxi it out to
fly. Tim seemed to imply that any
modifications after issuing the certificate
would require contacting the
FSDO and flying another 40
hours. I found that a bit drastic, and I'm
still not sure how it will work out (If I add
a nose wheel fairing, do I
have to go back into the test flight area for
40 hours? How about if I
change my intercom? Does the
simplest of issues requiring correction
during flight testing require the clock to
reset?). Tim's approach was
reasonable, so I'm sure it will all be
fine.
I had a LOT of cotter pins missing and nylock
nuts that weren't tightened
down. Most of this was due to not
wanting to waste cotter pins and nylock
nuts on parts that needed to be constantly
removed during the building
process. I probably would have
caught most of them if I'd had two months
between when I called for the inspection
appointment and when they came
out, which is what I was
expecting. "We can be there Friday" took me by
surprise, and in retrospect I should have
explained my expectation and
begged for more time. Then I could
have gotten several pre-inspections
and have been
ready. Recommendation: Get several pre-inspections so that
you are ready.
The biggest deficiency, by far, was that I do
not have my final propeller.
My "first attempt" prop has some shop rash on
it (tow bars are rough on
propellers when you don't remove them before
cranking), and I was quite
open with the fact that I had no intention of
flying with it. That was a
clear violation of the "ready to fly" rule,
and when I think about it a
moment, a clear violation of common
sense. The point of the Phase 1 is to
make sure the major parts of the airplane are
working properly together.
The point of 40hours instead of 25 for
non-certified prop/engine
combinations is to make sure they work
together in particular. How can
you test them together, when they obviously
haven't been fabricated? Duh.
At the end, Mike was wanting to write the
Repairman's Certificate for me.
All the pictures I've taken during the build
process running as a
slideshow on a laptop whil the inspection was
going on made it clear that
I had built this contraption. I
could tell that Mike didn't want to leave
me empty handed; but, he needed the
airplane's certification date for that
form, so he was blocked. I point
that out to say that these guys actually
WANT to give you the legal pass to go
fly. My project was simply NOT
ready to be called an airplane.
I've got a list of fixes to
complete. That give me some focus to punch
through and git 'er done. It won't
be long now. This would have only taken
one visit if I had:
1) Lined up some pre-inspections by people
who had been through this before.
2) Been honest with myself and asked for more
time to get things complete.
3) Understood beforehand that "complete"
means "completed".
No virus found in this
message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2013.0.2890 / Virus
Database: 2639/6061 - Release Date: 01/27/13
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