Matt,
I absolutely agree that one is too many....even for the guy that doesn't own the plane. I hate to hear about these kind of crashes, especially like the one that happened to Brian. I think that you will agree that the Sportsman split ess is not a particularly violent maneuaver, so something was definitely wrong. I now see why Brian is beefing his second one up...I don't blame him one bit and would do the same.
If your estimates about the total number of Impacts flying is correct (which I would agree with, maybe 50 at the most) then these are abo****ely unacceptable statistics......13% failure rate! And that just includes the ones you know about. I am going to try to investigate this further....but if anybody out there has experienced an impact failure like Brian's, then please chime in and tell us about it.

As far as my statement about just strong enough, what you are saying is implied in my context....they key phrase in your statement being ..."that we can afford". We all want our planes as light and strong as possible, to a point. I (like many) spend a lot of money on this hobby/sport/disease, but I'm not Boeing or Lockheed Martin so I'm not going to spend a fortune on exotic materials that will make my bird light and withstand loads that it will never experience...that's what I meant by just strong enough. I think at least in spirit we are saying the same thing...if not then okay, so be it.

Back to the Impact problem....Did you witness Brians failure? If so, can you describe what happened? For example, do you think something (rudder or stab) fluttered? I suspect that it was probably all over in an instant, so it is hard to tell. However, inspecting the damage after the fact may have some clues....any ideas?

-Erik