What about already-flying E-AB 601XL's?

The discussion here is directed specifically toward concerned builder/owners of 601XL aircraft already certified in the Experimental-Amateur Built category. This discussion does not apply to S-LSA or E-LSA aircraft, and is probably irrelevant to not-yet-certified E-AB aircraft unless the FAA changes its directions to the DAR community. It also is not meant for second or later owners of Experimental 601XL’s, who may have much less knowledge about their specific aircraft’s construction.

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Permalink Reply by Andy Elliott on December 14, 2009 at 3:41pm
Pete:

Great comments, especially on the very wide variety of aircraft we are dealing with here, all under the name 601XL. One of my biggest gripes is that some of the regulating agencies are acting as though all the aircraft are the same and attempting to apply blanket changes to them all, regardless of type and provenance.

This is drastically different from the certified world, where each would have a completely different designation and type certificate, and even within a type, any AD's would be assigned according to serial numbers and installed equipment.

I have never, in any of my messages, meant to imply that there is not a specific design, construction, maintenance or operation problem. There may be one or some combination of such. But I remain unconvinced that anyone has clearly identified a root cause or event or sequence of events that would lead to the failures we have seen.

The rear spar buckling seen in some of the post-crash photos, is, IMHO, an effect, not a cause. If such had occurred in flight, the damage to the aircraft and the types of crashes would be drastically different. Again, just my opinion based on education and experience.

And I remain convinced that until a probable and plausible cause, event or sequence of events is identified, that the regulatory agencies are still "shooting in the dark" and that we, as operators, are being poorly served. All of the various "fixes" may give operators a false sense of security and make no difference at all to our risk level.

Andy
Permalink Reply by Greg P Couttie on February 4, 2010 at 1:42pm
Hi Pete
Regarding your statement that the LAA were waiting on the results of the Canadian load tests -The airframe that PASSED the test WAS NOT a standard unmodified wing .There is a list of EXTRA MATERIAL added(see last )page .These are the full USA mods .
There is absolutely NO TEST RESULTS for the UNMODIFIED WING in this document ,do you not think it would
have been prudent to test before you fit ANY mods ,as a datum point ?
I am waiting on Francis approving the FULL mod pack .
Best Regards
Greg

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