There are about as many "interpretations" of the written regulations
as there are FAA staff.

Its very frustrating and confusing for us mere mortals to know what
applies to our own circumstances..

I just went through a revision of my Special Airworthiness Cert,
because when I bought the plane it was Experimental - Exhibition but
my operating limits where not the same date as the Certificate(Lost
the correct copy) so to be legal I needed to revise/update my
paperwork.

Apparently that just because you filled in the paperwork and a DAR
sent it to KS does not mean that he properly requested it to appear in
the FAA archives.

My several hard copy Special Airwothiness Cetificates had not been in
the FAA records for many years even though I had a hard copy
certificate in my hands(Without matching OPs Limits unfortunately).

In reapplying for a new Special Airworthyness Certificate It was a
surprisingly painless process with the FSDO rep coming out to look
over the subject and together we negotiated the Operating Limits to
our mutual satisfaction, PLUS I added the Air Racing to the Cert. and
now have Experimental - Exhibition/Air Racing

So now when I'm not at a contest or practising racing, then Im
practising for exhibiting(Aerobatics) or exhibiting my aircraft.

Since Im supposed to fly over sparsely populated areas, my exhibitions
are likely to gophers ;-) but I'm not required to list names.

There are no geographical limitations unless I take it to Phase 1
flight testing for 5 hours due to a major modification.

I beleive that Neil's case is probably a "Special" one where there
must be some extenuating circumstances that we don't understand, and
hence the
resistance from the FAA in helping him get AW Certicate.

Or he could be dealing with someone who does not interpret like some
others and probably needs to go elsewhere to get a satisfactory
resolution.

Elevating it to a highly visisble case was probably counter productive
as taking to someone else for another interpretation would have been
easier before.


On Jun 15, 7:17*pm, NG wrote:
I spoke with the head of the FAA Small Aircraft Directorate for
gliders yesterday regarding Experimental Airworthiness Certificates
for gliders. *In at least several states and particularly Arizona all
gliders are having their Experimental Airworthiness certificates
reviewed. *Due to an issue causing my DG505 to have its Standard
Airworthiness certificate recently revoked, which I further lost on
Federal appeal in front of the NTSB (see my posting June 8th 2010),
due to bad paperwork supplied by AMS Flight, d.o.o., I was caused to
engage the FAA in this dialogue.

I was informed by the head of the FAA Small Aircraft Directorate for
gliders that he recently had conversations with his supervisors in
Washington, D.C. and that in order to obtain or retain an Experimental
Airworthiness certificate the glider must be engaged in "racing" and
"preparation for racing". *He said an agenda of racing events must be
supplied to the FAA at the local FSDO level at the time of issuance or
revision of paperwork. *I was told that the Experimental Airworthiness
Certificate was NOT meant to be used for "fun flying".

I asked if badge flying would be considered as a type of racing. *He
said that one could attempt to engage the local FSDO with this to see
if in their judgement it would be valid, but he would not commit one
way or the other. *Having recently engaged the FAA in federal court I
have found that they can be a bit of a sticky wicket. *You may want to
look at the code on the definition of Experimental Certification if
you plan on obtaining or maintaining this type of certification. *An
electronic version of the code is easily reached online.

Neil AZ