Waiting the Long Wait

Have you ever noticed that when you are waiting for something to happen, whether waiting on an order to arrive, waiting for the repairman to show up, or even waiting for 5 o'clock so that you can go home and do more important stuff (more important at least for yourself), it seems to take forever? Well I am in that phase right now with my Ultralight, oh, I mean my new Experimental Light Sport Aircraft. And I am not talking about waiting for good weather, but I am doing that also.

Most people in General Aviation (GA) knows that the new Sport Pilot License and the new Light Sport Aircraft standards have really changed GA for the good. These new license requirements have created hundreds of new pilots. Plus a new process to design and market these new smaller Light Sport Aircraft have created dozens of new aircraft models that are now available from manufacturers all over the world. Therefore, it has never been easier to get a pilot license and it has never been cheaper to buy an airplane.

Now, back to my long wait. I own an ultralight aircraft which are also referred to as “Fat Ultralights”. These two seat ultralight aircraft do not meet the definition of a true FAA rules for a “Part 103 Ultralight” but these aircraft were allowed to be built and marketed as an exception to the rules for training purposes. With the advent of the new Sport Pilot legislation the rules for these Fat Ultralights have changed.

These Fat Ultralights are now called “Experimental Light Sport Aircraft” or an E-LSA. Owners of these E-LSA are required to register their aircraft with the FAA by January 31, 2008. That is, “complete the registration and inspection process on or before” that date. If the owner does not complete the process by this date their existing E-LSA aircraft will be grounded forever. I do not want this to happen to my E-LSA aircraft so I am following the process as quickly as I can. And this is where the long wait comes in.

Last year, when I first started to research the registration process I purchased the “EAA N-Number Registration Kit” directly from EAA (For those of you who do not know, EAA is the Experimental Aircraft Association). From the instructions I received plus comments previously made in several magazines, I determined that the registration process takes 3 to 6 weeks plus a couple of weeks to get the “Airworthiness Inspection”. Three months is more that enough time to complete the process. So, since I have a deadline of January 3, 2008 to be completed, I figured I can put the paperwork in at the beginning of October 2007, giving me four months to get done and leave me with the entire flying season to fly, fly and fly.

“But not so fast,” as I was recently advised by a FAA representative at a recent aviation safety seminar. They told me that due to the number of last minute registrations they are expecting to be submitted, if your registration application is not into the FAA by July 2007, you may not get it done. July? That means it could take seven months and you still will not get finished! Another FAA representative said that May may be too late also. Taking the advise I received to heart, I completed the registration paperwork and sent in the paperwork to the FAA as quickly as possible.

I talked to several other pilots who have been through this aircraft registration process recently and they said it was 3 to 4 weeks before they received their registration paperwork back from the FAA and then another 3 to 4 weeks to schedule and complete the DAR inspection. The “DAR” inspection is an inspection of the aircraft by an authorized inspector (DAR or Designated Airworthiness Inspector) who will issue, once the inspection is completed and passed, the aircraft's first Airworthiness Certificate.

So hopefully, if everything goes well, I should be able to fly in May, possibly June 2007. That would leave most of the summer available to fly in my new N-Number Experimental Light Sport Aircraft.

I do have some small good news. When I first received my EAA N-Number Kit it recommended that if you want you can request a specific N-Number, if that particular N-Number wasn't in use, you can reserve it for your aircraft. I went ahead and reserved an N-Number for my aircraft. I submitted the N-Number reservation information with my FAA application and now after waiting a week the FAA registry web site (http://registry.faa.gov/) shows that the N-Number I had reserved is now assigned to my aircraft. A week later I got my aircraft registration back in the mail. Yes! It only took me 2 calendar weeks to get my aircraft registration back.

I talked to several people who have already received their registration numbers back and they are all saying 4 to 6 weeks. The only difference for me was that I had already reserved and N-Number so maybe that made it quicker. Or maybe I got in during a not so busy time. I will never know but I am glad it took only two weeks.

The entire registration process is not difficult. I purchased the EAA N-Number Kit and found the information contained helpful and informative. I have also ordered the decal kit from my aircraft's manufacturer and for my Powered Parachute, the manufacturer's kit was better for the decals.

I would still recommend the EAA kit. While the decals provided were not beneficial for my powered parachute, the step by step instructions on how to get your aircraft registered and inspected were very helpful. The manufacturer did provide instructions but not as detailed as the EAA kit.

So step 1 for me is started. My registration paperwork is in, processed and returned. I have removed the ultralight decals and installed all the required decals and mounted my N-Numbers on the plane. Now, I am also waiting on new logbooks to arrive from another vendor. I will need a new aircraft logbook, an new engine logbook and a propeller logbook.

After that it is time to prepare for the “Airworthiness Inspection”. Once the registration paperwork comes back I can schedule that event. Once that is completed, and passed, I have a flyable, registered, N-Number aircraft.