Then one day...
In June of 06, the wife put up with me while I humored myself with a Van's factory tour and demo ride while we were on vacation in Oregon to see her Dad. We sat in the RV-7, 8 & 10 and tried them on. She picked the 10 as her favorite, but the "budget" picked the 7, or 8" and the wife liked the side by side better than the tandem. I wanted to think about it for awhile and after much soul searching I decided it was now or never. The next month we made a trip to Oshkosh via our Cherokee 140 and ordered a tail kit and tools.
Many months went by (26) and then one day... Yesterday, 10/8/08, my RV-7 project magically became an airplane. Three gentlemen from the FAA drove 2 1/2 hours from OKC to come get her airworthy. I was almost as nervous as the day each of my two daughters were born.
Two of the men were in training to become DAR's. One was an ASI and another was with the FAA safety programs office. The fourth was a friend, and my flight instructor who recently received a prestigious award for 50 years of aviation maintenance as an A&P IA. He had applied for DAR status and was invited along. I was honored to say the least, as this would be his initial DAR training so to speak.
The inspection went very well and I was given many compliments on the airplane. They showed a genuine interest in the public's safety, as well as my own and they just seemed to be all around good guys trying to do their job. I think they made an effort to put me at ease, and I thank them for that. I had paperwork, S.B.s, A.D.'s, logbooks, builders logs, calendars, maintenance manuals all laid out on a table made from saw horses and plywood. After the paperwork and the handshakes, my friend told me that at one point while I was talking to another one of the gentlemen, he was pulled aside and the ASI told him that he had rarely seen such a well prepared presentation in the field. What a compliment! Other than a comment about the smaller than optimum lettering on some of my switches, it was all good!
I have transition training scheduled for the end of the month so I have some time to get back into flying and build some tailwheel hours before my first flight.
I just wanted to thank everyone on Doug's site who answered or even asked questions. Believe it or not there isn't an RV based within 90 miles of me that I know of... so without your help, this would never have happened.
p.s. I received my repairman's certificate and a 100 mile phase one area due to no close avionics shops to do my transponder check. (It pays to live in the boonies I guess).
Oh yeah, about the signature... I still have some danged cosmetic fiberglass stuff to finish up!