Its airworthiness time...there are lots of questions

For general discussion of the Just Aircraft family of aircraft.
Includes: Highlander, Escapade, Summit and SuperSTOL.
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gme9261236
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Its airworthiness time...there are lots of questions

Post by gme9261236 »

We are bringing the plane to the hangar this weekend and filing the paperwork with the FAA but we are left with some questions. Most importantly..from the day you filed your forms 8130-6 and 8130-12 how long was the wait for the certificate? Is it standard FAA and we should plan on 4-8 weeks before even being able to do the inspection or as soon as it is in their hands can the DAR come over and sign us off? The plane is done and we would hate to sit around for a month + waiting.

Next..who out of you have certified your plane experimental light sport? We set up for that and on the data plate the builder is JA and not us to fit the EX LSA rule but we do not want to get too far into the paperwork if it is not possible to certify it as such and we are unclear on how it all works. I know something needed to be filed prior to a certain date to be EX LSA and my father did meet that deadline, so are we all set?

Now the rest...we were given a checklist from the DAR and I had some questions on them for what you guys have done.

-weight and balance: I am assuming full oil, water and unnusuable fuel?

-weight and balance: in the log we need a list of installed items, is this every single thing in the panel as well as the ELT and battery?

-unnusable fuel: How do we figure that out? With a header tank we would assume that the only unnusable fuel is the fuel that sits below the feed line to the engine which goes to the drain which is probably less than a quart but we are not sure.

-passenger warning placard: we have EXP and EXP-LSA and are not sure which one to put on. We are thinking of just waiting until the DAR tells us which one is appropriate.

-Fuel guage each tank: as you know the plane has no fuel guage and we do not plan on putting on in. We have a 3 gallon header tank with a sight "tube" guage that we plan on marking off in 1 gal increments. We also have an EFIS with a fuel flow set up although it only knows what to subtract from if you tell it. Is this needed and did you all use a electronic fuel guage? We do not want to and feel are are happy with the 3 gallon header tank as well as the efis and fuel flow and of course proper preflight planning.

-Marking the A/S indicator: We have the efis which automatically sets up the red VNE and yellow and green arcs as our primary. We also have a standard steam guage backup. Do we need to mark the backup as well and if so can I just paint a simple red line over the 130mph mark on the guage?

-Compass calibration: How did you all swing your compass'? Did you find an actual compass rose or did you use a gps or a handheld compass or did you just have it done somewhere?

-VFR transponder check: It says this needs to be done prior to first flight. We have a KT-76A that was bought used and yellow tagged operational, does that suffice? If it does not I am assuming we have to pull it out and bring it to an avionics shop, no?

-Engine compression logs: Did you do them or did you use the ones that come from the rotax factory?


That should pretty much do it for now. You all know this is a stressful time especially when dealing with the FAA so we want to make sure it is right. I appreciate all of your help.

-Shawn
gme9261236
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Posts: 181
Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2007 11:01 pm
Location: Hampton, NH 7B3

Post by gme9261236 »

Since this post is not having any luck probably due to its size I will thin it out..

The airplane is now in the hangar and weight and balance is coming today and the last thing we need to do for inspection is compass calibration.

-How did you all do this? I am very aware of the compass roses on most airports but mine does not have that. I have thought of taking a quality hand held compass and placing it on the ground and spray painting radials on the dirt in the required directions and rotating the plane around those making my own compass rose. What have you all done, anything easier?

-Reiterration on the W&B: We plan on leveling the plane with zero fuel and just the empty plane with oil and coolant and placing both mains on scales and writing that weight down. We will then weigh the tail in the same level attitude and add the 3 weights and that will be our empty weight. From there I believe it is just math.

-We have the empty CG calculated off the weights from the scales
-We add to the empty weight near empty fuel and one 180lb pilot and that is most forward CG
-We add to the empty weight full fuel, 2 200 or so pilots and then add up cargo weight until we hit 1320 or whatever the max gross was and that is our most aft CG

Does this sound correct or am I missing a step here?

last but not least, for the equipment list; Do I simply make a list of the airplane and everything that is now welded such as every instrument in th panel, battery, and elt?

If typing is not for you give me an email at shawn.mercer@comcast.net and Ill give you my number if that works easier.

Thanks everyone
DaveU
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Post by DaveU »

The compass calibration is something I did not do and the DAR did not care.  I had the compass in the panel and a correction card under it, but did not fill it out at the time of the inspection.

Your weight and balance stuff sounds right.

Equipment list was explained to me as systems that if there was a widespread recall on the items, the FAA could track who has what.  I listed my radio, elt and engine monitor.

I think you have to have the FAA registration to do the inspection.  You should have sent that in 90 days prior.  See what he says.

Dave
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stede52
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Post by stede52 »

I just went over the list of stuff my DAR will require for the S-LSA Airworthiness, I'm having my done this weekend.
-Form 8130-6 - Applicaton for US Airworthiness Cert
-Form 8050-3 - aircraft Registration
-FAA Exemption No. 9587 letter - required for E-LSA Airworthiness certification, request for registration must have been received by FAA prior to Jan 31, 2008 in order to qualify for the the exemption
-Three view or pictures
-Three Weight & Balance Calculations: Empty, Most forward, Most Aft, and Flight test
-ID plate on the aircraft
-Registration #'s on the aircraft
-Marking Required by Part 45 including the word "Experimental" not E-LSA on the aircraft
-Passenger Notice warning placard
- he didn't care about compas calibration
- No builder log is required for E-LSA Airworthiness Certification since the 51% rule doesn't apply

This will be the second E-LSA Certification I've gone thru.  I'll let you know how it goes but based on my previouse E-LSA Certificatoin, it is primarily a paper work thing with a high level viewing of the aircraft for any obvious issues.

Steve
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scubarider2
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Post by scubarider2 »

I thought that the window to get the Escapade/Highlander certified as E-LSA was over and now had to be certified as experimental AB.  Did Just Aircraft do their paperwork to get this done?
do a search on this topic....there was much discussion earlier.
Dennis
Live as though you were going to die tomorrow, learn as though you were going to live forever...
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stede52
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Post by stede52 »

Dennis,
As I understand it the exemption 9587 required that you had your registration request in the FAA pipeline prior to Jan 31, 2008 and you belonged to the EAA .  You get this exemption thru the EAA and in my case it gives me until 2010 to complete my Airworthiness Certification process.  If anyone has questions about the exemption they should call the EAA.

Steve
gme9261236
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Post by gme9261236 »

we were told the same thing, the DAR only cared that we could prove that the registration was in the hands of the FAA by the 31st of January. In our case we have a signed receipt from someone who works there that they recieved the paperwork on January 29th. We next day aired it and required a signature. The DAR said that is fine.
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