No idea who now populates the BGA technical committee, but they had a long
standing trust in the US FAA's philosophy towards experimental aircraft as
an approach to reasonable airworthiness and modification approvals (as
discussed with Dick Stratton over a beer at Bicester one summer afternoon in
1991 IIRC). I suspect there is some pressure from CAA and EU workings.

Other than Polish aileron hinges wearing a bit quickly, I'm not aware of
anything that wouldn't pass muster at periodic, say 1000-hour, special
inspections following the intial 3000-hour life. Hopefully, said gliders
will continue to fly under the experimental condition inspections in the US
if they can't fly under TC, if they are impacted at all here.

Frank Whiteley

"IanR" wrote in message
...
Not sure about general airworthiness situation here in the UK, but my
syndicate's a/c has been grounded for three months now, thanks to red
tape. There doesn't seem to be any resolution in sight, either.

It seems that the BGA are now enforcing manufacturers' suggested
service-life figures as mandatory. Not sure if this has come from
Brussels, but I wouldn't be at all surprised. At the same time, some
manufacturers have imposed new and very severe lifetime-restrictions
on their products.

The worst aspect is that both did this without prior warning, and
without publicising the fact until well after the event. At present we
cannot establish whether there is any engineering or safety-basis for
these changes, and the manufacturers refuse to disclose their reasons.
(Which I view as unacceptable - if there is a safety-issue, we should
be told what it is.)

More info he
http://www.internet.plus.com/pzl/

****************************

On 27 Oct 2003 23:07:03 GMT, Judy Ruprecht
wrote:

At 22:00 27 October 2003, Todd Pattist wrote:

My understanding is that the (US) process is
much easier now if the glider is certified in its home
country.

Perhaps some European ras-ers can comment on whether
and how individual countries' aircraft certification
processes are up for revision with the EU craze. Do
I understand correctly that there are some interim
procedures attempting to 'harmonize' things right now?
What lies ahead?

Judy