Quote Originally Posted by Samyguy View Post
OK how about us one? Your EX. burns or throws every thing away. Gone every thing! So now it's been sitting in the barn for along time. So you want to make it legal to fly some where now. Say you bought it ? and go from there? Nice bird, but it's only a grass strip plane now,as it sits or what ever. Migged every Al. tube.
Cry for the DAR?
Depends on what kind of plane it is...if it's a typical garden-variety scratch-built airplane, the inspector won't need as much convincing. If you show up with a nearly-ready-to-fly RV-10, they might want to be sure you didn't have a hired gun.

Are you the original builder? Shouldn't be too hard. If it were me, I'd start a new log. First entry would be along the lines of, "Previous builder's log missing. To the best of my recollection, construction was started on XX/XX/XXX, and approximately XXX hours had been expended so far. Commercial parts used include XXXXX, XXXXX, and XXXX."

If you did the MIG welding like your posting implies, grab some scrap tubing and make up a structure, taking pictures along the way, especially having someone take a picture of you actually welding it.

Contact your local FSDO. Ask to speak to an airworthiness inspector. Explain the situation, and while you can't document the construction so far, you can demonstrate that you have the requisite welding skills that would be required to build.

Again, depending on the type of aircraft, I don't think you'll have much of a problem. Ultimately, you have to submit a signed affidavit that the majority of the aircraft was built for education and recreation. THAT'S the official claim. The logbooks just back it up. With enough coordination with the FAA in advance, I don't think there'd be too much of a problem.

Ron Wanttaja