Today was the big day. My DAR, Darrel Watson, arrived via his Kitfox at 9am. We also had an FAA ASI (Shaun) who needed to shoulder surf one of his inspections on site. Turns out that Shaun was also a Marine – and Darrel was Navy. Three veterans meant there was some good story telling on top of the very thorough inspection Darrel performed. Darrel noted that my build was one of the cleanest he’d ever inspected and noted in particular that my firewall forward and sheet metal work was well done. HIs comments were a huge confidence boost for me. Having built it, i’m aware of almost every ding, dent, and mistake!

We started out with paperwork, then moved to compliance – data plate, placards, log books and the like. With that out of the way Darrel started firewall forward with all of the engine controls and the moved to the rest of the aircraft.

All said and done, N22UP now has a special airworthiness certificate and is cleared hot to begin phase 1 flight testing. As a bonus my operating limitations allow me to do either the 40 hours or the task based flight testing. I plan to do the latter. I spent the remainder of the day putting inspection panels back on the aircraft and doing another inspection of my own as I went.

As a final note, I would definitely recommend Darrel as a choice of DAR. He was very cordial and helpful in working through the AWC application process. He did a thorough inspection – a good thing when you are looking to strap the plane on and take it flying!