GSO FSDO Fun

I suspect that most people's first reaction to the subject line above is that I'm being sarcastic. I know that often the view (frequently an accurate view) of the FAA is that it is "Us versus Them". But I had a truly fantastic and positive experience with two members of the GSO FSDO yesterday I wanted to share. I'm not going to name names because I didn't get permission to do so in a public forum, unfortunately.

I finally got around to applying for my repairman's certificate. As one has to do, I went through the FSDO phone tree and got randomly assigned to the maintenance inspector on duty that day. He clarified everything I needed to have in order for him to give me my certificate. He reviewed my builder's website, was happy with what he saw, and we set a date to meet.

Along the way he suggested that instead of me driving to the FSDO offices he might be able to meet me at my hangar if his travels ended up out in my neck of the woods. With some hesitation (do you REALLY want to INVITE the FAA into your hangar??) .. I agreed. I honestly didn't know whether I was being set up or not, but took the gamble since he indicated he was interested in maybe building an RV himself.

We met yesterday and I can't begin to express my shock at how much fun it was. He brought along a new FSDO employee to help the guy gain some experience, and both of these guys were passionate about aviation, including the experimental end of the spectrum. We talked, literally, for hours. As luck would have it a friend (and former Citabria-partner) was bringing his son's summer camp group to the airport to look at planes and the FAA guys were thrilled about that too. They spent time talking to the kids, and even had some FAA "swag" to give to them.

Even though they weren't there to inspect the RV (the guy is one of the FSDO folks who do experimental airworthiness inspections) he looked the plane over quite a bit. I'm so used to thinking of my plane in terms of "just another RV" that when he started getting effusive about what great workmanship he felt it exhibited I was actually taken a bit aback. He was actually quite glad that I had not gotten around to painting it because he loves to see the details that paint often covers.

Giving me my repairman's certificate was -almost- an afterthought, a trivial part of the whole visit. The rest was talking shop, sharing stories, and just generally having a grand 'ole time. He had done an antique restoration in the past so knew the game from our side of the FAA/Builder dividing line as well (and had his own stories about "wrangles" with the FAA, too).

I am thrilled to find we have guys with this sort of experience and attitude in our local FSDO. In the spirit of giving credit where it is due, I really felt I wanted to share this experience. I'm still shaking my head over it all.

Oh, and yeah. I got the repairman's certificate too. That was, after all, the whole point of the visit.

Improving the Relationship

Thanks for sharing Dwight. I'm sure there are lots of folks at the FAA who share our passion for aviation. For our part, we can probably do more to further this passion and improve the relationship between "us" and "them". If we go into our dealings with the FAA with a positive expectation we may just find more aviation enthusiast such as those you had the pleasure of working with the other day.

You don't realize just how lucky you are. My FSDO won't do AW inspections, even if you paid them extra! They say to use a DAR, and readily agree that there are no DAR's in the area to do them. One FSDO person actually suggested that I just fly it without an AW due to the inability to get one. Our tax dollars at work!

The guys in the CMH office give me a very similar experience. Several of them are also active in the local community and very experimental friendly.

It's pretty evident about those that enjoy their job and those that don't. It would be nice if the service levels from the various FSDOs would be consistent, but that's probably too much to hope for at the moment.

I had a similar experience with the SAT FSDO. The inspector came to my hanger (about 1 1/2 hour drive from SAT) to look at my airplane for the purposes of giving me a Repairman Certificate. Sorry I don't remember his name. He was very pleased to see how the plane was built; aircraft hardware instead of the other variety, aircraft fuel lines instead of clear vinyl, etc. Apparently there are some pretty shoddy experimentals out there.

Ditto for GSO FSDO

I also used GSO FSDO for my-4 certification a few years ago. I have gotten to know most of the guys/gals over there fairly well,as I work at one of the "Big Plane" places at GSO, and I'm an AP/IA. The GSO gang seems to have a great G/A team that has no problems working with us homebuilders.

I too had a great experience with several FAA guys at the CLT FSDO. An older employee that inspected my plane wanted a couple color pictures to put with the paperwork. A year later I was at there office to correct an error in the operating limitations. Just happened to be that guy's last day before retirement. Sitting in his office drinking coffee, talking about flying, fishing and family, I notice under the glass top of his desk pictures of his wife, kids when young, grandkids...and a picture of one airplane. Mine.