On 2008-07-28, Victor Bravo wrote:
I'm holding up my end of an argument, against three or four people who
are being equally snotty. I would be delighted to raise the level of
this "discussion" up to a more genteel level, but it would require the
same commitment from others... who immediately came after me with both
barrels right out of the gate.

Put yourself in my position.

You make comments about an airplane on which I just spent a large sum of
money and invested a lot of personal emotion into, using your experience
with one part of the aircraft to "explain" that another, completely
unrelated part of the aircraft that's been implicated in accidents is
somehow underdesigned, yet not backing up your comments beyond that - and
especially when my experience with your complaint on my aircraft turns out
to be quite different?

Just what kind of a reaction were you expecting?

4. There have been now SEVERAL 601XL in-flight wing failures, one or
two new ones since I made the comment that started this flame-fest. If
my big mouth keeps a couple of people from burying their heads in the
sand on this issue, then perhaps there is some good being done.

Nobody I know of in the Zodiac community is burying their head in the sand.
With a couple of exceptions, nobody's running around in Chicken Little mode,
either. We're watching the situation and doing what we can to minimize the
risks inherent in flying, just as any prudent pilot would do.

One of the Heintz brothers (I think it was Mathieu, but I could be
misremembering) has said that there is no one common factor among the
accidents that are under investigation. Since he's involved in the
investigation, he can't say any more than that until the NTSB has released
its findings.

6. I own a CH-701 mini-project (plans and a few tail parts built), and
I would love to build it and fly it. I am a very strong supporter of
Chris Heintz' designs for the most part. He has done something
brilliant, made the airplanes easy to build, and extremely simple.

Great! Build it and fly it! Even if your scaremongering about the 601XL were
on target, that would not apply to the 701 - as that's a different aircraft,
with a different flight profile, and a safety record even you shouldn't be
able to find fault with.

8. If I'm being snotty I apologize, but I will return fire when fired
upon. And as you can see I will fully substantiate my arguments,
unlike some others here !

Fine. Let me know when you do substantiate your arguments. So far, you have
utterly failed to explain how the one piece of concrete data you have - that
you were able to flex the horizontal stabilizer mounting by moving the
stabilizer tip - has anything at all to do with inflight structural failure
*of* *the* *wings*. Until you do, you're just blowing smoke.

From a highly experienced airport bum and highly NON-engineering-
degreed mechanic, I am telling you all that there is an issue on the
tail mounting of the Zenair design. I don't know if it is a big
problem, a fatal accident waiting to happen, hugely overbuilt, or
something that will wiggle but never break. That is a question for the
engineers to clarify but someone needs to look at it.

This is not borne out on my aircraft.

Further, it has never once been implicated in any accident, fatal or
otherwise, of the 601XL. Therefore, why, exactly, is it relevant?

I'm saying that there is a tragic problem with the CH601XL airplane
design. There are too many catastrophic structural failures that
cannot be swept under the rug of builder error or amateur aerobatics.

That remains to be seen. I do think there's a problem somewhere. There are
enough possibilities, and enough factors that can interact, that I do not
believe there is an inherent design flaw sufficient to cause structural
failure of an aircraft that is properly built, well maintained, and
conservatively flown. That there has been no common factor found in the
accidents in the type tends to bear out that opinion.

Until the problem is found, I intend to maintain my aircraft to the highest
standards of airworthiness possible, and fly it well within its performance
envelope and my capabilities as a 225-hour, non-instrument-rated private
pilot. That's all I can do.
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
Fairmont, MN (FRM) (Yes, that's me!)
AMD Zodiac CH601XLi N55ZC (got it!)