Hi Bill (et. al.)

I was speaking with a friend of mine that is a DAR (Designated Airworthiness
Representative) regarding kit planes and he had a number of suggestions
regarding certification, unfortunately you may be too far along to really
make any use of it.  He provided me with a 4 page list of "reminders" that
the FAA inspector should look for.  This isn't a formal document but a list
of single sentence reminders that says things like "Certificate of compliance
on manufactured parts?"  "Weave indicators for fabric orientation?", "Areas
preped for bonding were sanded without faying the surface" and such.  Since I
work with him on the airline's "heavy iron" all over the world, we get to
talk about these things quite a bit.  One of the best pieces of advice he had
was to write a QC document to illustrate that you have looked at the parts
and pieces, have a way of evaluating them and if required, rejecting them if
they are not up to standard.  Since I do composite design and fabrication
professionally, I plan on keeping retains and testing the resin at regular
intervals with gel time and Shore hardness.  This shows the inspector (and
insurance company and a buyer after I'm ready to move on), that I tested
these materials to make sure they were in spec and that they passed my own
QC.  I may also get a Barcol hardness tester to verify that the prepregs in
my kit also pass the test to insure complete cure, or alternately get a cert
from Lancair that they have a QC system that certified my parts passed their
test and include that with my documentation.

And of course this is on top of a log and photo's.

I also plan to have production samples that show examples of properly bonded
joints and such on some scraps I have of prepreg honeycomb panels.  All of
this is designed to show the inspector that I know what I'm doing and give
him a level of comfort that it was built acording to a prescribed set of
rules and not some hobby shopper that can barely stick the plug for his drill
into the wall socket.

I'll try and scan the document and post it here for everybody to read.

Since I am only getting ready to begin, it's not a problem but unfortunately
that still doesn't help you much.  What I can suggest is that you contact the
EAA technical counselor.  They are GREAT and can get you the information in
the unlikely event they don't know it themselves.  Next I'd contact Lancair.  
 Those folks have been absolutely super, as I'm sure you already know.  

And in the end, and having dealt with the FAA often, I can say that they can
require you to do just about anything.  If they feel that you have
substandard bonds, YOU are the one that has to prove them wrong.  They are
under no obligation to pass you, and their first priority is not to get your
plane flying but to protect everyone else from you.

It's for reasons like that which cause most DAR's like my friend to outright
not do homebuilts!

Dan Newland

ES #61