Panic!

I thought my wings were getting clipped. After 8 years of blissful flight in my magic carpet, I faced a do-or-die deadline, Jan 31st. The FFA has changed all the rules about how we do this sport and getting compliant with the new rules is a bit complex. Its not the way we fly that they changed. It has more to do with the way the FFA has pulled us under their oversight. Now I have to hold a real pilots license (that part done), and our aircraft have to be N-numbered and certified by a "Designated Airworthiness Representative" like all other aircraft--yearly.



The January 31st deadline was as follows: get your plane N-numbered and airworthy certified by this day, or your plane can never, ever fly or be legal again. I wasn't making it. It needed overhaul anyway, so I decided a few months ago to get the engine redone and replace some of the worn components. Well, some of the parts that should have been done by today, were not done.



At the eleventh hour however (today), I got word that the FFA granted reprieve to those of us who had started the paperwork earlier. They must have seen the writing on the wall: 27,000 or so aircraft were about to become forever illegal. So I have a little more time. Whew! I hate working on my bird under duress. I left it unfinished in the garage and got on my mule and went for a much needed ride with my boys.