Vic continues to perform DAR inspections for aircraft within a two hour window of GA04 by RV-10.  Contact Vic via email: vicsyracuse@gmail.com

So now you’ve finished your aircraft and you want to fly it, but first you need that dreaded Airworthiness Inspection! No need to fret or worry. That’s why I am here – to help you get through that as painlessly as possible.

I am authorized to perform Initial Airworthiness Inspections on Amateur-Built and Light Sport aircraft and have been doing just that for approximately 14 years. I can travel to other States upon request and co-ordination with the local FSDO/MIDO. Prices are $800 for the inspection. Travel in RV-10 is at $300/hour. Contact Vic :  vicsyracuse@gmail.com

I have licensed RV-3s, RV-4s, RV-6s & 6As, RV-7s & 7As, RV-8s & 8As, RV-9s & 9As, RV-10s, RV-12s, RV-14s, Kitfoxes, Avid Flyers, Pitts, Glasair’s, Kitstorms, Just Superstol, Lancair’s, Carbon Cub, Rans, Sonex, Waiex, Zenith, Starduster, Searey, and even a Jenny, along with many others.  I also have done ELSAs and Light Sport aircraft.:

If you are not a member of the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) I would highly recommend that you join and take advantage of the online resources that are available to its Members.

Some recommendations:

•  Start working with your DAR early in the construction process. That will help you understand any particular areas that he/she may want to see prior to the Airworthiness Inspection.
•  Get involved with the local EAA chapters, or use the invaluable Internet type-specific Forums to become aware of other builders in your area.
•   Don’t wait until the construction is completed to begin the paperwork. A good rule of thumb is to start the paperwork at least 3 months ahead of time to insure no delays.
•  Make sure you have the Bill Of Sale. Many builders tend to misplace this when they receive the initial kit. Most kit manufacturers will issue you another one upon request. Some may not even issue it until you request it.

Get your Affidavit of ownership (8050-88) filled out and notarized

•  Send these documents, along with form 8050-1 (Application for Registration) to the Aircraft Registration Branch, with $5, and soon you will receive a white hard copy Registration which goes in the aircraft. If you’ve already reserved an N-number, send a note asking them to assign that particular number to your aircraft. Otherwise you will be assigned a random 5-digit N-number.

Ahead of the actual inspection you will need to open an account on the FAA’s Airworthiness Center (AWC). Here’s the link: 

https://awc.faa.gov/AWCExternalApplicant/Splash/Index

Once you fill out all of your information, you will have to upload the following documents:

• Notarized Statement of Eligibility (8130-12)
• Builder’s logs
• Weight and Balance calculations for most forward CG, most AFT CG, and the proposed test flight CG
• 3-view drawing or picture of the aircraft
• Program Letter (you can contact me if you need a sample letter)
• Copy of the Aircraft Registration

It should ask for the responsible FAA office. Make sure to put in “ATLANTA MIDO”, and then my name (Victor Syracuse), so it gets routed properly. 

For the actual inspection:

• Aircraft opened up (cowling off, all control linkages viewable, appropriate fairings off, etc.)
• Aircraft Logbook with the following signed and dated entry:

 “I have inspected this aircraft and find it to be in a condition for safe operation.”

That’s all there is to it! Don’t hesitate to reach out to me, either phone or email, and I will help you through the process.

 

Kitplanes Airworthiness Inspection Article (Those Pesky Inspections) by Vic Syracuse Sept 2014:

The Initial Airworthiness Inspection for Builders and the Condition Inspection for non-builders of Amateur-built Aircraft seem to cause a lot of concern. And while there’s no doubt that for some it should (I’ll add some color to that comment a little later) they are really both quite similar and not all that difficult. And both Inspections have the same objective: to insure the aircraft is a condition for safe operation. From the phone calls I receive it appears the trepidation of the Initial Airworthiness Inspection stems more from a lack of knowledge as to what is required, and the Condition Inspections for non-builders rank up there with a visit to the Dentist.

So let’s discuss exactly what “condition for safe operation” means and how to best accomplish them. Preparing for the initial Airworthiness is really quite straightforward these days. There are certainly lots of resources such as on-line help, local EAA chapters, and a complete packet with all of the required forms available from the EAA for $15. As I mentioned in an earlier article, I recommend that you find a DAR early in the process and you will probably get all of the help you need, thereby eliminating surprises or delays. All of the inspections that I have seen delayed have been due to paperwork issues so let’s discuss the most common ones. 

Prior to the initial Airworthiness Inspection being authorized, the aircraft has to be registered, and for that to occur the FAA needs 3 things: an Application for Registration, a Bill of Sale traceable back to the kit manufacturer or original builder, and an Affidavit of Ownership. These 3 requirements seem to be the beginning of the problems for some. 

The Application for Registration, form 8050-1, is one of the few FAA forms that cannot be downloaded. Most FBO’s will have one, especially if they are an active aircraft sales operation. This one has carbon copies, and while prior-certified aircraft can use the pink copy as a temporary registration certificate, it is not pertinent in our case for the initial registration. Go ahead and fill this one out with your reserved N-number (if you have reserved an N-number, write a short note asking them to assign it to this aircraft). Otherwise, leave it blank and they will assign you a number. 

The Bill of Sale seems to snag a few builders as well. Most of the Kit manufacturers have learned that everyone loses these so they now send them out upon request at the end of the project to the kit owner. The problems seem to occur primarily where there have been multiple owners. It is not sufficient to submit only the bill of sale from the last builder to you. All of the prior bill of sales must be included back to the original manufacturer. So hang on to them when you purchase a kit. Put them in a safe place with all of your other valuables. By the way, a Bill of Sale can be the downloaded FAA form 8050-2 or a bill of sale/sales contract that you and the prior owner have signed and dated. 

The Affidavit of Ownership is downloadable as form 8050-88. This one needs to be notarized, so don’t forget to have that done before you send these three documents along with $5 to the FAA Aircraft Registration Branch in OKC. Normally it will take 3-6 weeks depending upon their workload to get your Registration card back to you. For those who wait until the last minute, there are a couple of companies located in OKC that will hand carry the paperwork through the FAA process within a day or so. 

Once the aircraft is registered, you can begin your Application for Airworthiness. This is another downloadable form, 8130-6. Where appropriate, such as Builder, Owner, N-number, etc., it should exactly match your Aircraft Registration card. Your DAR will help you with this, along with any other documentation that is needed, such as a Program Letter, Eligibility Statement (FAA form 8130-12), weight and Balance, 3-view drawings, etc. 

Yep, some think the paperwork is bigger than the project itself! Eventually we do get through it, and we can get on to the nuts and bolts (pardon the pun) part of the inspections. This is where the fun starts. Remember, in an earlier column I wrote that we were supposed to be having fun. J I really do have fun performing the Initial Airworthiness inspections because for first time builders it is a lifetime event. And sometimes the situations themselves can have some levity. 

The most common greeting I get when I arrive is “I’ve had my A&P, IA, Tech Counselor, etc., look it over and we are ready for you.” I love the fact that the builder is willing to have others look at his/her aircraft. In 7 years of inspections I have found that some of these have the most discrepancies. The funniest one was hearing this exact statement as I was walking towards the airplane from the right side, with the RED nav light staring me in the face. Very politely I said that I thought we usually placed the GREEN light on the right side. The look on everyone’s faces as they stared at the light, then at each other, and then back at the light was unforgettable. 

I’m usually doing a cursory look as I am walking towards the airplane. On another aircraft I noticed that neither of the main wheels had cotter keys on the axle nuts. When I mentioned it to them I was firmly told that they had them “cranked down as tight as they could and they weren’t going anywhere as they had already completed taxi testing!” Needless to say, the rest of the airplane received a very thorough inspection and required multiple trips to rectify the discrepancies. Intentions were good, but unfortunately they didn’t make use of available resources during the build process.

On an RV-10 I discovered more than 40 rivets missing from the vertical stabilizer main spar. On a meticulously plans-built and spotless, show-quality Pitts I discovered a loose B-nut on the main oil line from the sump back to the inverted oil system. I could turn it with my fingers. I really recommend that everyone check each jam nut and B-nut with a wrench and then add torque seal. I still check them, but at least I know that supposedly someone else did the same. On this same aircraft the oil temp sender was missing the safety wire.

Here are some of the more common discrepancies on Initial Airworthiness Inspections:

Loose jam nuts on control rods and rod end bearings. I find more of these loose than any other single item. I believe that the recently issued service bulletin from vans pertaining to elevator spar cracking is due to this very cause. Torque seal works well here, too.

Missing cotter keys. Wherever the bolt is subject to rotation, castellated nuts along with cotter keys are required. I recently inspected an RV-10 that had been flying for 85 hours without cotter keys on any of the four engine mount bolts as well as the main wheel axle nuts!

Data plate compliance. This is really a simple area, but gets confusing for some. There are only 3 things required on the data plate: Make, Model, and Serial number. All 3 of these are on your Registration card and should be on the data plate in the exact same format. And the data plate needs to be of stainless material.

Baffling. Many builders forget to tie the under-cylinder baffling together, as well as sealing the baffling to the engine with RTV or some other sealant.

Safety wire. Common areas are the brakes ( not required on all brakes), engine compartment (oil temp senders with AN-900 gaskets, oil filters, gascolators), and flap actuators on RV’s.

 

Checkpoints article Kitplanes Magazine Dec 2018

Airworthiness prep.

By

 Vic Syracuse

 – 

December 21, 2018

0

There’s no doubt that the first flight of an amateur-built aircraft can be quite stressful, both on the builder and the family. Coming in at a close second seems to be the airworthiness inspection. At least that is my sense from the many comments I hear and also see on the various builder forums. Seeing as these are first-time builders, I can understand all of the fuss. We were all first-time builders at one time and probably just as nervous about that inspection. However, there are a lot more resources available today, and I would think it is a great thing to have someone else perform a very thorough inspection of the project before you go fly it. Yet I see comments from builders who “shop” DARs and FAA inspectors who really only focus on the paperwork. Having been a DAR for over 10 years now and having licensed hundreds of airplanes, I’ve only had to issue two denials, and all parties agreed we needed to do that. One had to do with an engine of unknown age and origin, and the other was really misrepresented as a new airplane, yet it had been flying for three years and 300 hours.

Yikes! Every one of these missing cotter keys is in a critical location, and each is exposed for easy checking except for the spar bolt, which is quite important in its own right. The axle nut coming loose can cause some serious ground-control problems, as well as the rudder cable coming loose. Can you imagine the surprise on the first landing in a taildragger without directional steering?

It seems to me that some builders are wary of someone else finding something wrong with their airplane. So what? I have found lots of things wrong, some very serious, and others just nits. But guess what—they were all fixable and everyone is much relieved. As a matter of fact, I get quite a few requests for airworthiness inspections outside of my geographical territory due to my thoroughness. Nevertheless, my wife sometimes finds things wrong with my own airplane, as she does poke her nose around whenever I am doing maintenance on them. Does it bother me? Well, truth be told, it annoys me that I missed it, but I am thankful that she looks around, and I can get over the ego issue quite easily.

This is one of two jam nuts on the elevator push tube. Both were loose, and the tube could be spun by hand. I probably don’t need to say anything more about the criticality of jam nuts on elevator push tubes.

The Usual Suspects

Here are some of the most common issues I find on the airworthiness inspection. This is meant to help you look more closely at the usual problem areas, not to show you what I can find (or any other DAR for that matter). I am not going to go into any paperwork issues in this column as I have done that before, and one of my cowriters (Dave Prizio) has also already done that for you. The pictures should speak more to the point than a lot of words in print, so I’ve included quite a few this time.

This elevator trim tab pin is supposed to be secured with safety wire. If it should move out, it can interfere with rudder deflection.

When I arrive at the location, once the pleasantries are completed, my eyeballs are looking for anything out of the ordinary as I am approaching the airplane. Over the years I have noticed nav lights on the wrong wingtips (red on the right side as an example) and missing cotter keys from axle nuts. Both are certainly easy to do, but the builders are quite surprised when I point them out. Next my eyes are looking toward the engine compartment, where it is very common to find things that haven’t been tightened up. Common things here are loose exhaust nuts (which can create a very hazardous condition if they come completely off, allowing hot gases to reach the fiberglass cowling and possibly cause a fire) and clamps that haven’t been tightened.

All of the exhaust nuts were loose on this airplane, and the engine had already been ground run. Luckily it all stayed together.

Hoses are another very problematic area, again mostly with loose connections. I like to see the use of Torque Seal placed on the nut after it has been properly torqued. I always make an attempt to loosen the fitting by hand and have been surprised by how many loose ones I find! What’s even worse is when I find a loose one with Torque Seal on it! Then I no longer trust any fitting or nut on the airplane and check all of them. Fuel pump fittings and inverted oil systems seem to be the most notorious. I assume it is because they are in awkward locations, but since they are both so critical, it pays to take the time here and do them right.

Drilled-head bolts are just as critical as castellated nuts. They need to be secured with safety wire to prevent rotation. They do not have lightening holes!

Drilled-head bolts and castellated nuts are usually there for a reason, and each of them requires safety wire or a cotter key, respectively. Most of them are in critical locations such as control systems, where a missing bolt connection could be catastrophic. Again, some of them can be in hard-to-reach and even hard-to-see locations. I know I have written enough about jam nuts, in this and other publications, that you would think the problem would be eradicated by now. I’m convinced it is some kind of undiscovered plague!

The loose brake line bolt is not serious, but it is supposed to be tight.

Lines, Wires, and Control Sticks

While many kits and builders are making more use of flexible lines, there is a weight penalty associated with them and sometimes a life-limit on them as well. Not so with aluminum lines. Once installed they should be good forever. However, flaring them properly takes some patience, and I have discovered many leaks due to over-torqued aluminum flare fittings. One also needs to be careful not to nick or scratch the aluminum too deeply, or else the tube will be prone to cracking.

Be careful not to nick or scratch aluminum tubes too deeply, or they may be prone to cracking.

Unsecured wiring has the potential to cause intermittent problems down the road as the wiring can eventually break from the vibrations. Another real safety aspect is the potential for unsecured wiring to chafe and cause shorts and sparks. Allegedly, the in-flight explosion and crash of a 747 was eventually attributed to chafing wires in the fuel tank.

Use the proper fitting appropriate to the hose and function (high pressure/low pressure). Some hoses require clamps, others may require the hose to be pushed on the barb an appropriate distance in order to be secure.

Another pet peeve of mind has to do with the control sticks. I see way too many installations where there is interference to the control stick from the panel or engine controls. This is absolutely not allowed. If you are going to extend instrument panels to handle all of the latest and largest glass screens and then put on stick grips with buttons to control everything, you have to start shortening the sticks. You really have to be careful here, and too much shortening can affect the control feel, so pay attention when you are building to not go too far outside of the designer’s specs with regards to panel height. It is also a requirement that the cockpit controls are labeled. I can’t tell you how many airplanes I have licensed or flown and had to ask what the various buttons control.

Do make certain that the panel and/or engine controls do not interfere with the stick deflections. Oh yeah, while you’re at it, label the controls!

By the way, all of the pictures you are looking at in this column came from one airplane. That’s right, one airplane. I did commend the person for asking me to come and perform the inspection, as it was a 3.5-hour one-way trip in the RV-10. He knew he wanted someone to look it over closely. Kudos for doing that. However, no points for missing the obvious stuff.

No points for unsecured wiring. Most definitely they will eventually cause intermittent problems from the wiring breaking due to vibration. They also have the potential to cause much more serious issues, such as shorts or sparking in current-carrying wires.

Take the time to put the tools away and thoroughly go over your airplane, making a list of everything you find. Then go back and fix it. It’s too easy to get distracted by fixing everything as you find it. At least try it. You could even practice playing DAR. So what if you find some things you missed. We all do.

Make it fun. I know I try to make the inspection fun and relaxing for everyone. It’s all supposed to be fun.