April 7, 2009 - Inspection
I had my DAR inspection scheduled for 10:30AM.  I arrived at the airport around 8AM because I wanted to clean up the hangar and give the RV one last lookover.  It was a cold and windy day.  Technically it is Spring but we sure havn't experienced it yet.  I was kind of glad to be doing the inspection on a weekday.  There was no one around and the DAR could perform the inspection uninterupted. 
  
This is as clean and organized as my hangar has been in a long, long time. 
 

I tried to get a picture of the windsock in horizontal position -- where it was most of the day. 

Actually, I had not one, but two DAR inspectors look my plane over.  Bill was the my official DAR, but his friend Jack, also a DAR, came along as well.  Bill has built two RV's.  Jack I believe is more a fabric-covered expert. 

They spent over an hour going over my airplane, concentrating on the firewall forward and safety-of-flight items: the flight controls and linkages.  They found a few minor things, easily fixed on the spot, but in the main seemed very satisifed.  Then they had me start the RV up, taxi around, and do a run-up, which I did.

Then we were all happy to go into the -- nice and warm -- FBO building to do the paperwork, which took another hour.  Bill gave me the operating limitations document and reviewed it very carefully.  He gave me for a test flight area a 50 nm circle around an airport onthe eastern shore (Massey - MD1) which I was very happy with.  I have to fly a 40 hour test period during which I'm not allowed to carry passengers and have to fly over uncongested areas.   No surprises, it was what I expected. 

 
Then Bill gave me the coveted pink special airworthiness certificate!  N18LC is now officially airworthy. 
 
Here is the five page Operating Limitation document. 
 
The logbook entries.  Both the DAR and I certify that the aircraft is in condition for safe flight.
 
The inspection was over by around 1PM.  I spent the next four hours putting everything back on the plane -- and I didn't even get half of it done.  I had bought this little electric-screwdriver for this very day.  I must have screwed in hundreds of screws today.  No way I could have done it by hand. 
 
I installed the empennage fairings, the right wingtip and the right wing bottom inspection covers.  Next came the cowl and spinner.  Finally, I started on the right wing fairing but looked at my watch and saw it was 7PM.  I had been at the airport 11 hours -- enough for one day. 
 
I still have probably half a day of work to do before the plane will be ready for flight.  Still, getting the inspection done was a major milestone.  Won't be long now!
 
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