Ron was based at our airport. I'd only met him once, but a friend who was his CFI considered him a very conservative pilot. Conjecture at the airport today was that he got disoriented in the haze that was pretty bad yesterday, and got into a death spiral. That's at least consistent with the in-flight breakup. Conjecture isn't usually worth the effort. We all plan on waiting for the NTSB now. Tragic.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


"Jim Burns" wrote in message ...
Cracked wing skin on a Dakota?
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art.../NEWS/60531005

Ok, it may not have anything to do with the skin cracks... but the thought of a -235 falling out of the sky missing a wing makes you wonder what happened.

Jim

"USA" wrote in message news:Xlrfg.5806$rS6.408@fed1read11...
Hi, For all the PA28-235 drivers in this group, have you ever noticed any "little cracks" in the column of rivets on the top-side wing panel above the flap on the pilot side? The cracks I have are evenly distributed in middle across the columns of rivets. My mechanic spotted them today & recommended that I re-skin that one panel. A 55+ hour project. I was told that pilot-side top panel skin cracks are not uncommon near the flaps for the 235's.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge with this issue and how did you or would you handle that.

Other than that, as you might expected, the plane flies flawlessly in every other aspect.

Thank you.