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I worked for Flight Standards for many years and most inspectors are terrified at the part 103 rule. They think it forces the designer, pilot and future owner into flying a structure that is tooooo light, not strong enough, does not have enough performance to get out of bad situations etc. So they see one, they might ask, ôis this a part 103 ultralight?ö
Answer ôyesö. They look for one fuel tank (5gallons), single seat and other than that they generally walk away. It may not be the FAA party line speak but it is the internal truth. The FAA donÆt have the budget or time to mess with ultralights, or 103 or even experimentals for that matter, thatÆs why they push you to DARs for certification. Hard to get DARS because the insurance is so high.
In fact at the FAA academy a few years ago, one of my instructors told all of us , if you ever have to certificate an experimental aircraft, tell the pilot donÆt fly it until my ôG-carö is out of sight over the hill.. That is how afraid they are.
This is not true of all FAA inspectors but the majority of them. Mainly because the come from the military and donÆt know about little airplanesà.. Just my opinion so donÆt flame me too much, on second hand go ahead, I spent 50 yrs in Alaska freezing my nuts off and still havenÆt thawed out!!!

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https://blog.globalair.com/post/Equal-A ... A-Pay.aspx



Take a look at this URL above. The FAA has to have some pretty hard evidence to open and EIR and go forward other wise they risk the above and they do not want that. I have seen the FAA have to Pay Warbelos Air Ventures $54,000
Because they filed a violation and did not have all the facts and it was overturned by the Administrative Law Judge. Field inspectors or normally the poor bastards who have to do all the work, get all the evidence and write the enforcement
And it goes thru lots o review process before being sent up to Legal to send out a notice of [proposed certificate action.
There are 30 day 60 day and 90 day time lines and the whole thing have to be adjucated within 6 moths or closed out no action and that looks bad on the supervisor as a waste of Govt money which it is.
SO an FAA inspector could make an issue with a part 103 plane but 1) how is he going to weight it? He cant order you to weight it. He cant weigh it. He would have to be trained on the use of the scales being used and the owner would have to agree to let the FAA weigh the plane to which you say NO. Now if you are in a bad crash and the NTSB gets involved, they can seize the plane until they are thru investigating it, however this is rarely if ever done on something without an N number. Iver never seen it done. So the fAA has limitied powers. They ask how much does it weight, you tell them 250pounds last time I weighed it. The FAA gets most all their evidence thru confessions from the owner pilot.
They have little more power than a USDA food inspector and in fact are under the same FG classification I thinkà..
Im not trying to pick a fight with the FAA just saying, fly your plane and enjoy it and if a ôsharkË FAA guy cruises by donÊt get excited, they are not interested in youàà

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