Was your plane built by AMD or is it EAB? How many hours do you have on it? Looks like a Jabiru cowl, or is there a Continental in there?

Ed

I have been told that for the AMD SLSA 601XLs the mods are mandatory. I guess that's because they have to adhere to a type certificate. So far the EAB 601XLs are being treated as the Experimental Class aircraft that they are and as such the mods are optional but strongly recommended, as in" If you have a structural failure related incident we are going to bust your chops big time". Of course if I thought there was much of a chance that such an incident would happen to my plane, I wouldn't fly it until the mods had been completed.

Every guy that flys an XL knows a bunch of other pilots (pretty much like every pilot). Therefore the pilot who dies in a crash is known by lots of other pilots. The guys who know the deceased pilot personally always seem to say what a meticulous builder he was and what a conservative pilot he was. With all due respect, these are anecdotal testimonials and are pretty much emotionally motivated and nearly irrelevant when you consider how many other common garden variety, run-of-the-mill builders and pilots are still flying without structural failure.

Something specific happened to the planes that broke but we have stopped looking for what happened. We have opted to change the design which is the one thing that all the XLs, crashed ones and flying ones, have in common. I don't get it so I won't modify mine unless (A) it becomes mandatory for me, or (B) I have some other compelling reason to have the wings off and the opportunity is too convenient to pass up.

I don't think it is a mistake to do the mods, just unecessary as supported by the high time XLs that are doing just fine. I do think it is a mistake to quit looking for what actually is the common factor among the crashes and I wish we were still investigating to find the variable factor(s) instead of this vague typical governmental approach of "We have to do something".

Ed