I completely fail to understand why peeps are concerned about these checks - as long as you just stick by the regs and carry the paperwork required, ie do a completely normal planning and aircraft pre-departure inspection, there is nothing in a SAFA-check that can catch you unawares.
Last time they complained about a bare-metal transponder antenna on the belly of our aircraft: "this will corrode quickly and stop working" the inspector told me. I took a close-up photo of the antenna (including the "do not paint" label) and attached it to my comments of the report.
I think this post by "what next" explains a lot. Another guy was checked and they found a small crack in the package of one of the life vests. That was a finding in the french inspectors book. I saw a picture and I would have thought this vest is serviceable....
I had a SAFA check where they complained that I use "Flight Safety" checklists on my airplane. There is a FS logo on the checklist accompanied with a Cessna Checklist, cause Cessna uses FSIs help to create them. This was worth 30 minutes of discussion and in the end I needed to call Team Sovereign, put that 'gentleman' on the phone let Cessna explain them what was clearly written on the checklist (FAA approved). At our expense of course, calling the US from Austria on my german mobile isnīt exactly cheap. I had tried to convince him by using the FM, which contains the same checklist without the FSI logo, but that did not work.
I had checks in the UK (Stansted IIRC), Paris, Vienna, Stuttgart and a try in Turkey, where a young guy in Jeans and a sort of Hawaii shirt entered the airplane with our guests, not saying a word or showing ID... my colleague threw him off the airplane (I was loading baggs at the time), we departed to another airport in Turkey and had a 'fiesta' with another authority there cause we 'avoided' a SAFA check.
Some of the inspectors apparently do think they are policeman amd some just do their work in a proffesional manner. I have no probs with type 2, but type one I can`t stand.