Regarding the data plate on your homebuilt...

When I built my RV-6 the requirement for location of the data plate was
that it be on the empennage and "visible from the ground". Well, I
didn't really want a dataplate detracting from my beautiful paint job so
I put the data plate on the bottom of the empennage.

I had a real honest to goodness FAA inspector check my airplane out for
its certificate and he couldn't find my dataplate on first go around...
so, he asked where it was... I said on the bottom of the empennage and
you'll have to lay on the ground to read it. He went to his book of
regs and found the pertinent paragraph for location of the data plate...
found that I was in compliance with the wording of the regs.

A couple years later, I noticed that the wording for location of the
data plate now read, "visible to a person standing on the ground".

John

Rich S. wrote:
"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATcox.net wrote in message
...

If that is the case then why do they want be to have all of the access
ports open on the aircraft? I ask this because I've not yet been through
an inspection.


This dates back to the days when they had the budget to allow time for a
proper inspection - and they had the knowledgeable personnel who cared
enough to make one. It is a real shame that there isn't that interaction
between FAA people and the users of the system - the citizens who pay the
taxes. I knew inspectors forty years ago who really cared about such things.

In today's world, here's what happens. The inspector shows up and spends
about five minutes arranging the papers on his clipboard and then carefully
dons his hermetically-sealed FAA ID card on a chain about his neck. He
introduces himself and asks for your paperwork. The next half-hour is spent
verifying that you have crossed your "T"'s and dotted your "I"'s. He will
look at your registrations numbers, measuring their size and judging their
color. He will inspect the data plate (if any) on your engine. He will check
your placards in the cockpit.

Then he fills out your certificate. You ask him if he would like to look in
the inspection hole in your wing, knowing full well the aileron cables are
not safety wired (you're going to do that at the airport during final
assembly). He squats down and looks up under your wing, the inspection hole
a "Black Hole" in the bright sunlight. He says, "Looks good!" and gives you
a beaming smile. He hands you your certificate. He doesn't even know what
safety wire is.

This is the real world of federal bureaucracy. It's not pretty. Perhaps a
DAR inspection is different.

Rich