On Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:20:26 -0400, clare at snyder dot ontario dot canada
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:10:15 -0700 (PDT), Victor Bravo
wrote:


Have a look at the Zenair 601XL, where an airframe KIT costs you $20K.
Now look at the unfortunate and tragic problems the 601 is having with
the wings folding in flight, and compare it to an airplane with a 60
year safety record, full commercial FAA certification, and tell me
that this is not a reasonable bargain.

Wings folding in flight??
New one on me. The ONE I'm aware of had bolts not properly installed.

Hmmmm. I presume this one is NTSB # LAX06LA105, but the online report says,
"Eleven of the main spar attach bolts were found in their normal position and
remained connected by their respective retaining nuts and washers. Recovery
personnel had disassembled the twelfth bolt during retrieval of the airplane."
Nothing mentioned about improper assembly.

The other one, the wings were torn off when a couple of
drug-compromized idiots put it into a dive or something that GREATLY
exceeded VNE and tried to pull it out, or something like that.
The Aeronca Champ would have suffered the same fate in both cases.

DFW07LA102 combined wing failure with the detection of some prescription meds in
the organs of the sole occupant...doesn't sound like the one you're referring
to. Was it a foreign crash?

In any case, I think the Fly Baby has the Zenair 601 beat. Out of 51 Fly Baby
crashes, 13 involved wing failure.

Ron Wanttaja