Well, it was bound to happen someday. My first non-rebuildable, completely catastrophic crash. I was flying my resurrected 30-year old Andrews Aeromaster bipe (family heirloom). It was flying great, engine tuned well, trimmed out nice. I was pulling out of a dive at about 3/4 throttle. As I neared horizontal, I saw a piece of white material fly off the plane. At first glance, I thought it was an aileron, which I had just rehinged. Ruh-roh. The plane immediately and quickly rolled over to the left. I could not bring it under control and planted it into the ground.

Post mortem revealed the following: As we walked toward the wreckage, the white piece was still floating toward the ground. It was not an aileron; they were both intact. It was a large piece of covering that had come off of the bottom left wing. It just ripped off in flight. The exposed open space caused the plane to go completely out of control. In looking at the wing, the strange thing was that the covering did not break loose at a seam. It started to rip about 1 1/2 in. back from the leading edge. Ironically, I had just recovered the bottom of the wing a few flights prior to repair some damage from a forced landing.

My question is this: Is it possible for covering to just give way like that? Is it more likely that the wing began to fail, stressing the covering and causing it to tear? Would the cold weather (about 30) have any effect?

-Scott