Factory statement as at 2pm 13/9/06....

"Since there is a risk of touching an unhedral tail plane to the ground during take off or landing, there is a chance of damaging the tail plane’s structure so that it can fail in flight. We had this very unlucky incident with one of our customers. This customer has been very professional, has given us the chance to carefully and completely investigate the incident and come up with a solution for all of you. The customer will be taken care off in privacy after full investigation is concluded.

Since not only the tips of the stab, but also the elevator control horns have a chance to hit the ground during take off and landing, depending on the surface structure of the runway, we have created a Kevlar skid which should be glued into the ventral fin to make sure that this skid will hit the ground first when the plane rotates, to protect the stab and the elevator control horns in case of overrotation. A servo gear damage caused by hitting the ground with the elevator control horn can result in elevator flutter which can create such huge forces on the tailplane that no reinforcement would make it stay together.

The case of enlarging the slots for the servo arms on the bottom skin of the stab (over the factory cut size) also can add to a possible risk of damaging the tailplane during take off further. Therefore we have quickly created a safety package of a nicely milled carbon fibre sheet, which is glued to the outside of the stab bottom skin in the area of the rear stab spar, to stiffen the skin in case any holes or slots have been added or enlarged. We remember a similar fix of a very popular twin boom trainer, where an additional carbon skin was glued to the surface of the booms. This was, and also in our case is, only a safety precaution for existing and flying airplanes.

Until last weekend we have not had a single structural failure of a Lightning, and we fly 5 airplanes in our factory team with many hundreds of flights on each of them. We know of at least 80 Lightnings already flying out of the almost 200 produced. So please don’t be worried about a general design problem or a manufacturing defect. But be cautioned to check your tailplane after every landing for damage, especially if you feel that you had hit the ground, and please contact your Rep so that he can send you the tail skid and additional carbon skin free of charge. This will be a piece of mind package for all who worry now.

Last but not least, we of course apologize to Rob that he lost his plane in that incident, we thank him that he stayed very very professional, and gave us a chance to investigate and comment, finally improving a product and its handling advices, where we all know that we are somewhat at the limit of the possible, boring 20 kg through the sky with 200 mph+. We are as glad as the pilot that nobody was hurt."

For existing customers, please contact the rep through whom you purchased your Lightning to ensure you get the precautionary safety package. Please contact your rep also if you have further questions.

Kind regards,
Mark