German
First flight D-KRMR
On January 26th 2009 "MR" finally made it's first flight.
I got great support from everybody involved! I really appreciate this, since the registration of an abroad glider isn't a common task. I want to say thank you to the FAA and the LBA, especially the "Referat B5", which pictured me the way to go and always answered patiently questions.
assembling
For the German registration a German inspector was required in order to perform the inspection for the registration. It took me a while to find an inspector, who was willing to fly over to California. But finally Thomas from the "Luftsport-Service-Center Ost GmbH" told me that he would come the long way from Germany to California for signoff the ship. I want to say Thank You one more time!
inspecting the controls
While the inspection of the fuselage was performed in the workshop, the weather allowed to inspect the assembled glider outside and to do the test flight right afterwards (I love California's weather :-)
Spoiler check 
While Thomas and I took care of the glider....
dual flights :-)
...the girls already practiced the dual flight ;-)
hooking up the controls
My DG still got the original Hotelier connections and hooking these up is always a pain. Either I become used to it or I perform TM 826-28 by replacing them with the "Wedekindsicherung".
Ready!
Jadwiga is holding the wing for the engine test run. Everything is ready for starting the engine.
engine test run 
A couple of turns later the engine was running. Because of the low engine hours and the low airport elevation , reaching the required RPM was a piece of cake.
The glider is OK!
Technically everything was in perfect working order and the next thing to do was the test flight, which was required for the registration process. A seating test later "MR" was ready for takeoff on Runway 13 at Hollister Airport.
Flight preparation 
"Hollister trafic, glider D-KRMR ready for takeoff on runway 13, Hollister glider"
"Hollister traffic, glider D-KRMR taking off on runway 13, Hollister glider"
Takeoff!
What a feeling!
Landing under palm trees
The weather was good: 4/8 Cu in 4000 ft with 6 kt lift! Unfortunately my ground crew was waiting for me and so I was only able to perform the program for the flight test.
Happy!
What e feeling to succeed after all this effort! My wife Jadwiga was happy as well and it was a pleasure to hear her laughing on the video!
Now all the papers were completed and filed to the LBA. I'm walking daily to our mailbox for checking whether the registration did arrive, especially since the weather is still good!
Video
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