Mel is THE DAR Extraordinaire...

[noelf]

Mel, Just want to say THANK YOU for setting me (and by proxy, my local FAA FSDO Airworthiness Inspector) straight on what Phase 1 and Phase 2 documentation was needed to be carried in my recently inspected RV-6A.

For those builders that have yet to submit the paperwork for an Airworthiness Inspection and the subsequent Operating Limitations, you should review FAA order 8130.2F, CHG 1 (or the latest revision). This document (Airworthiness Certification of Aircraft and Related Products) can be downloaded from the FAA website. It is a 350+ page document, but the section you want to focus on is Section #153.

This section contains all of the paragraphs (and numbers) that will be used to create your specific Operating Limitations for the Phase 1 and Phase 2 documents. It appears that they get copied (as appropriate) and pasted to create the final document. You should be able to review paragraphs 1 through 28 and compare them to your specific OpLmts.

Section 147, paragraph d.) states that the FAA must prescribe all operating limitations for phase 1 and 2 as appropriate.

It is the "as appropriate" that had my FSDO folks interpreting...well, differently. They thought that it meant that the phase 2 OpLmts document was optional. In fact, they needed to create a whole "new" document and pull in the appropriate paragraph numbers (select from numbers 1-28) to create the Phase 2 Operating Limitations. They had checked with Oklahoma City, got the "word" and I now have all the OpLimts for phase 1 and phase 2. I don't know how many experimental a/c have been given only the phase 1 documents from this office. Hopefully, they will review their records and contact the appropriate a/c owner/builders.

So Mel, thanks for setting me straight on what was really needed.

[WenEng]

I can't count how many really GOOD advisors there are on the VAF board. I don't even know Mel and I take his opinions SO seriously. I want to thank all the contributors to this site so newer builders like me can learn and eventually be able to add our findings to help others too. Mel is top dog but there are at least 20 others that are really close.

[Mel]

Thanks for the Kudos, guys. Just trying to keep things straight. When miss-information gets out there, it seems to spread like wild fire. And like I said, the FSDO guys don't have experimentals at the top of their priority list. Many of them depend on the DARs to keep them up to date. I work very closely with my FSDO and I communicate with the lead guys in Oklahoma City on a regular basis.

Actually 8130-2F is under chg 3 at this point.

[8CW]

Mel,

Check your pm's. Thanks.

[Vern]

I recently helped a Pitts Model 12 owner get his FSDO certified Pitts out of NON-aerobatic ops lims into aerobatic ops lims. FAA guy didn't know the Pitts was an aerobatic machine.