First, my condolences on the loss of your friend, Mr. Cummings. Second, I support your decision to do the upgrades to your plane. Third, I support my decision not to upgrade mine. In addition, I wish we were more actively engaged in trying to figure out what caused his crash and the other six XL crashes too. We seem to have thrown up our hands and embraced the government approach... :" We have to do something".

A stronger, and more "overbuilt" airframe as Chris Heintz put it, is not a bad idea. I particularly like the idea of beefing up the rear spar attach point which looks suspect to me. On the other hand, none of the crashes involved actual verified failure of the rear spar attach components. One or two may have involved the suspicion of a loose or lost rear spar attach bolt(s).

Soem folks are still discussing the implication of aileron and/or wing flutter as though the German GVT and wind tunnel tests had not shown that to be so unlikely as to be irrelevant.

I really wish that for all our sakes and for the friends and families of the XL pilots and passengers who died in the seven crashes, we would be spending this energy finding the actual cause(s) in addition to giving XL builders and pilots the option of the upgrades. That's just my two cents worth, and again, you have my sympathy for your loss.

Ed

Hello, Wayne

I saw your Zodie's picture in Zenair News.
I am interested in the idea of painting the top of the canopy as you did.
I also like the idea of doing it first in a non-permanent way. Thus my question:
What type of wax did you use?

Haven't gotten your approval to my Friend Request here at Zenith    :)

     Hope all is well.  Are you flying much?

Glen