Had a pretty eventful day and a major milestone was achieved today. Ross Ferguson from the Minister's Delegates, Recreational Aviation or MDRA attended my house to complete my pre-close inspection.
In Canada, we have to have a pre-close inspection prior to final riveting the skins or closing any other control surface. Every rivet is looked at and the workmanship is assessed.
After peering at every nook and crannie of the build so far, I got the thumbs up to close everything up! What was even better were the comments as to the quality of the build and the fact that not one defeciency was identified! Feeling pretty good about it!
Every control surface and major structure receives a sticker and the actual placement/location of that sticker is recorded and submitted. The sticker is also made so that if any attempt is made to remove it, it will tear apart for obvious reasons.
Fellow builder Kent Scherm also stopped by on his lunch to see the pre-close inspection proces as he has one coming up for his build. He's doing the fuse, wings, emp and control surfaces all at the same time...safes money that way as each pre-close inspection is $415 with tax...ouch! The MDRA inspectors are volunteers and are paid mileage by the builder. In my case, Ross lives around the corner...less than a mile. I tried to buy him a lunch, but he would have none of it. Great guy and an extrodinary builder!
I'll spend the next few weeks closing up the control surfaces and then move onto the wings.
