Shawn *did* have Chuck do a flight checkout for the Taylorcraft so it is not like there was no precedent for flying this one. As to Shawn's invitation to the flight, my understanding is that he is extremely difficult to get in touch with. Chuck was trying to do the right thing in getting the aircraft completed and delivered to Shawn.
RC Havoc,
I don't want to get into a pi@#ing match with anyone but didn't you just find out who the wrong party was. Just because shawn had him do a test flight on a previous craft he had built does not mean he had the permission for this one. Just because Shawn is hard to get ahold of does not mean that automatically gave him the permission to have the plane flown no matter what happened in the past. There is not precedent here, unless shawn said "Yes, fly my plane!" then he should have know bettter. The other thing that worries me is that if he was getting this plane ready for shawn why didn't the test pilot take off circle the runway to get it trimmed and land, but no, he had to try a bunch of aerobatic manuevers and crashed. After reading your post I can honestly and without doubt say chuck is clearly in the wrong and that is the way I and probably many others will see it and he should just pay for shawn's airplne.
Patrick.