Revised FAA Aircraft Certification Policy

[Dave S]

Good evening,

EAA announced the recenet release of the FAA's revised policy in the form of order 8130.2h which covers some of the items that have been discussed on the forum in recent weeks regarding aircraft certification, Airworthiness certificate inspection procedures, issued limitations, DAR responsibilities, etc. affecting LSAs & Experimentals. Here's the link to the EAA's announcement which links to the order.

http://www.eaa.org/en/eaa/eaa-news-and-aviation-news/2015-news/03-26-2015-revised-aircraft-certification-policy-released-by-faa

The order is 300 some pages long and the material which mostly concerns us starts in chapter 4, I believe.
Sincerely,

Dave S

[SWeidemann]

Dave,

Thanks for the notice about the new regs publication. I got my notice today by email and looked up the rules for registering a SLSA as a ELSA and still cannot understand if you can or cannot still do it. I'm going to ask for clarification on that one from others who can read better than me.

Could I (as an owner of an SLSA aircraft) "de-register" it as a SLSA and re-register it as a ELSA now? My goal would be to be able to do all the maintenance, condition inspections and possibly make minor changes. I understand an owner of a ELSA now is able to do this with some advanced training to qualify (however not as much as needed to become a SLSA Repaairman, like what Paul Z did).

Skot

[alienwes]

In my sport pilot training I was aways told that an SLSA old change to an ELSA but never an ELSA to an SLSA.

[Av8r3400]

E-LSA repairman is only a 16 hour class to work on an aircraft that you own. I did this for my yellow plane (certificated E-LSA).

What Paul did allows him to work for hire on any S or E-LSA.

[Paul Z]

You can change a SLSA to an ELSA, and you can change an ELSA back to an SLSA but there is a BIG hurtle. In order to change an ELSA back to ans SLSA you need the approval of the Manufacturer, which if there were any changes may be damned near impossible. The big advantage to converting to an ELSA is the ability of the owner to take the 16 hour class to do their own Annuals, it does however remove the ability to use it for flight training. I personally think the change from SLSA to an ELSA offers the better benefit for the owner that wants to make changes.

[Paul Z]

E-LSA repairman is only a 16 hour class to work on an aircraft that you own. I did this for my yellow plane (certificated E-LSA).

What Paul did allows him to work for hire on any S or E-LSA.

Av8r3400,

Please refrain from using that 4 letter word, it offends the sensitivity of this retired man! W * * k for hire implies I have to meet a schedule and I need to get something done on someone else's schedule.

[Paul Z]

"Could I (as an owner of an SLSA aircraft) "de-register" it as a SLSA and re-register it as a ELSA now?" Yes

"My goal would be to be able to do all the maintenance, condition inspections and possibly make minor changes." Yes you could make minor changes, but you will need FAA Sign off an may be required to flight testing of the change. An owner can work on ELSA plane, Annuals would either require a LSRM-A, or you can take the 16 hour Light Sport Inspectors class.

"I understand an owner of a ELSA now is able to do this with some advanced training to qualify (however not as much as needed to become a SLSA Repaairman, like what Paul Z did)." The owner of an ELSA can work on the plane, Annuals would either require a LSRM-A, or you can take the 16 hour Light Sport Inspectors class.

Look at the below it describes it very well.
http://www.faa.gov/aircraft/gen_av/light_sport/media/lsa_cert_8july2013.pdf