DonFromTX
Well Known Member
Well I have cooled off since my DAR went home with the papers instead of giving them to me. I felt I should share my experience to perhaps keep others from a similar experience. I am located where there are no DAR's within about 600 miles!
For convenience my fuselage and tools are in my air conditioned garage at my house, and the wings are in the hangar several miles away. It is much more comfortable to work here at home on wheel pants and my various "extras" which my plane is full of. I became aware of a DAR that had done a RV12/Viking recently, and called to see if he could do mine, and what he wanted to see. As you all know, DARs seem to each write their own regulations and their requirements can be all over the place. The separated wings and fuselage was discussed in detail, he claimed to have read my entire kitlog, and claimed that he had an option, either send in a photo of the plane with wings on, or submit a three view drawing of it (which I have) and that he could of course inspect the wings far better if not installed. This did not surprise me much, even Mel's instructions are as cut and pasted from his email: "I want to see the aircraft with inspection covers and cowling removed as if for a condition inspection." Can be read both ways, but since a condition inspection requires the wings to be removed, I supposed he wanted to see the wings OFF too.
We had two planes to inspect, the other one was first, took all of 10 minutes to glance at the plane (An RV8a). Data plate, Experimental passenger warning and that was it. Thinking I was in for the same the next day, it all turned sour! He called his "boss" at some MIDO who told him he could never give an AW cert to a plane that had the wings off! He then told me that he would just keep the papers until I sent him a photo of the wings on. His boss again said no way, since I could change things around in the meantime to make it not in condition for the certificate. His final offer was that all I had to do is pay him for another visit, $1200 and he would come back and see it with the wings on!
Obviously putting the wings on is a complicated technical operation and cannot be entrusted to a simple builder, Tech counselor, and A&P like myself, but $1200 seems stiff as well. Since it should fly just fine without the piece of paper, I am tempted to just forget about it. I think the EAA idea of DAR's was a good idea gone really wrong, letting the MIDO loaf and making homebuilders play a game that is costly and they cannot win.
It is a real shame, but I would encourage a builder to get EXACTLY what the DAR wants in writing, and then include a statement that if he wants to change the rules when he gets there, he can go home with none of your money. If he won't sign it, he is probably looking to rip you off with multiple visits.
For convenience my fuselage and tools are in my air conditioned garage at my house, and the wings are in the hangar several miles away. It is much more comfortable to work here at home on wheel pants and my various "extras" which my plane is full of. I became aware of a DAR that had done a RV12/Viking recently, and called to see if he could do mine, and what he wanted to see. As you all know, DARs seem to each write their own regulations and their requirements can be all over the place. The separated wings and fuselage was discussed in detail, he claimed to have read my entire kitlog, and claimed that he had an option, either send in a photo of the plane with wings on, or submit a three view drawing of it (which I have) and that he could of course inspect the wings far better if not installed. This did not surprise me much, even Mel's instructions are as cut and pasted from his email: "I want to see the aircraft with inspection covers and cowling removed as if for a condition inspection." Can be read both ways, but since a condition inspection requires the wings to be removed, I supposed he wanted to see the wings OFF too.
We had two planes to inspect, the other one was first, took all of 10 minutes to glance at the plane (An RV8a). Data plate, Experimental passenger warning and that was it. Thinking I was in for the same the next day, it all turned sour! He called his "boss" at some MIDO who told him he could never give an AW cert to a plane that had the wings off! He then told me that he would just keep the papers until I sent him a photo of the wings on. His boss again said no way, since I could change things around in the meantime to make it not in condition for the certificate. His final offer was that all I had to do is pay him for another visit, $1200 and he would come back and see it with the wings on!
Obviously putting the wings on is a complicated technical operation and cannot be entrusted to a simple builder, Tech counselor, and A&P like myself, but $1200 seems stiff as well. Since it should fly just fine without the piece of paper, I am tempted to just forget about it. I think the EAA idea of DAR's was a good idea gone really wrong, letting the MIDO loaf and making homebuilders play a game that is costly and they cannot win.
It is a real shame, but I would encourage a builder to get EXACTLY what the DAR wants in writing, and then include a statement that if he wants to change the rules when he gets there, he can go home with none of your money. If he won't sign it, he is probably looking to rip you off with multiple visits.