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Larry Winger's 601XL Project
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Date: 9-13-2014
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Number of Hours: 0.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Airworthiness Inspection Complete - It's a plane!
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This was the big day where N819P changed from a collection of aluminum, fiberglass and steel to an FAA-certified experimental amateur-built aircraft. I was given the "Live Love Fly" t-shirt for Christmas in 2012 by my son and daughter-in-law, and I determined that I would not wear it until my airplane was complete. Today was that day. My inspector was Matt Hlavac from Ramona CA which is northeast of San Diego and 100 miles from my airport. Due to a real shortage of DARs (Designated Airworthiness Representatives), he was the closest I could find. While I had to pay for his travel, in addtion to his base rate, it was money well spent. He is a very accomplished scratch builder who takes this role seriously. All in all he spent nearly 2 hours giving my airplane a very thorough inspection. He had an extensive checklist that I was given in advance. At least one quarter of his time was spent looking at every hose, fitting, cable and fastener from the firewall forward. He wanted to understand every part and connection to the whole. From there he moved back, section by section, through the airplane, including the hard to reach areas that put you laying flat on your back or nearly standing on your head. He checked all control surfaces for correct movement and range of deflection. The last inspection step was to roll it out and fire up the engine to inspect the cockpit labels, see the engine come to life and check all engine gauges. In the end, his "squawk list" for me was 5 very minor items that would not keep him, or me, from flying the airplane. They just represent small items like minor interference from one leg of a cotter pin that needed to be bent further or his suggestion that I put a 30 to 45 degree bend in the ends of my control cables to prevent them from completely slipping out in the event of a fastener coming loose. He was very complimentary of my workmanship and signed me off without hesitation. Whew!
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The piece of paper I've been missing
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Matt doing his thorough inspection of the firewall forward and engine
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Checking the battery and everything behind the seats
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