Jay, I am impressed by your pretty flight suit. In fact, your fotos tell me you take the right to flight as a given. It's not in most of the world. Our rights and our safety should work hand in hand. I have worked in aviation, too. In addition, overseas were you cannot blog the issues or speak to the facts. And the facts in this case according the the FAA do not require grounding. The wing on the 601XL is about as common and safe a design in aviation ever came up with. More to the point, most manufactures put weight in their a/c to cover up the faults in their design. Well designed & balanced a/c do not need weight added if built & flown correctly. But if you think that AMD builds it better because of the paperwork, you are at risk. I know every rivet in my aircraft because I put them in. You have no idea of the skill level or educational level of the workers who built your a/c. AMD could have hired subcontractors or even migrant labor to rivet together your a/c. ADs are issued more often than not to certified aircraft for a reason. Correcting faults is great. However, the numbers speak for themselves. Weight balancer or not in your controls does not mean you will make a controlled landing when cables break or rods snap. I do not take safety for granted nor do I take may right to flight for granted. Hundreds of hours building, hundreds of hours flying & hundreds of hours maintaining speak for themselves. And that is on this one a/c not to speak of all the other a/c I have flown or worked on.

Jay, since theaileron rib is not flush for ou to do the tie downs I designed with the tennis bals(see Seb's Blog) I have an idea for your tie down. Get a small surf board strap. then get a piece of regular carpeting say, 15 by 20 inches. Tthen take two thin (thin is the word) pieces of plywood. staple or glue them 2 3 inches apart from the center of the carpeting. these will give the carpet stiffness. place the strap around the wing ( i preffer the straps made by Rhino) which have a cushoned wrap around the tightening mechanism. ) slip the carpet on the aileron and flap, , then have it held by the strap. it should work pretty good.

Juan Vega

Jay, I saw pictures of Oshkosh. How was it? How was the flying in to the airport?
Juan