On 9 Dec 2004 06:06:48 -0800, "Michael"
wrote:

The second bird had the Baron spar. It didn't help. If you
consistently pull back hard and roll, NOTHING will help.

Houston FSDO is investigating. Unfortunately, the only person at the
Houston FSDO who knew anything about aerobatics (and would have been
competent to investigate) quit in disgust months ago, so don't expect
much.

It is interesting to note that EVERY T-34 spar failure without
exception has been at one of these weekend warrior outfits - not a
single one in private hands has ever had a problem, including one
18,000 hour T-34 that is used for airshows by the owner.

Michael


Ironically, Air & Space Magazine (Jan '05) has an article on the T-34
wing spar failures and the several "fixes" that were developed by
private industry after the FAA and Raytheon failed to come up with a
cost effective solution. The story identified the problem of all
T-34s being lumped into one group when all of the failures were
concentrated in these hot-dog organizations. The FAA didn't want to
hear it.

The solutions that were described in the article all, to different
degrees, sounded like viable means of maintaining airworthiness. I
wonder if the accident airplane had any of these fixes installed. I
hope that this situation doesn't destroy the innovative work that was
done by many to "solve" the original problem. It appears as though
T-34s flown within a reasonable flight envelope is a safe plane. It
would be a shame to see them all grounded because a few people pushed
them beyond their limits.
Rich Russell