Zapped, I do feel your frustration ... trust me! Yet, it was not my intent to turn this into a 'flame engineers' thread.

There are several directions this can go ... but I believe Greg was expressing his frustration at being to required what amounted to little more than a catalog page with an engineers' stamp. It seems silly for the AHJ to not recognize the teacher (the source material), yet recognize the student (the engineer). The data is the same, even if the contractor is the guy who found the catalog in the first place.

It's too easy for the petty bureaucrats to insist on more paperwork - to cover their laziness and lack of training - especially when YOU are the guy who has to pay the bill.

In the original post light thread, I described what I recall I did a few years ago. My dimensions may have been slightly off. In any event, different areas have different practices; I am sure the poster is familiar with the soils in his area, and can make it work just fine.

All I can say for certain is that the post light I described, placed in the side of a mountain, has survived frequent hurricane-force winds, arctic winters, and several minor 'earth shakes.'