"ORIGINAL: David Gladwin

In my view, based on a lifetime of operating jet aircraft, as soon as this incident occurred, there should have been an immediate world wide alert to the problem, requiring an immediate inspection of the stab. structure BEFORE further flight.

ORIGINAL: rhklenke
Geez David, in this country, even the NTSB takes a few days to investigate an accident before delivering recommendations for inspections and such. It could well have been that the owner bumped the elevator against the side of the trailer taking it out, stripped a servo gear, and the resulting flutter in-flight took the stabilizer halves off. What good would an "immediate, world wide alert" (if there is such a thing for models) done if this was the case except panic everyone who owns Lightnings?"


Except this...if he did NOT post it, and then another lightning went in this weekend for the same reason...what then? How would YOU feel if some other people knew all about the problem, and decided not to mention it? Better safe than sorry.



"And no, I have no hidden agenda, just an open one. If we are to secure the future of this branch of RC modelling and do our utmost to avoid a "big black eye" the we have to react to problems such as this, rapidly and with total objectivity. If anyone wishes to describe a serious flight safety issue such as this as "product bashing " then you have totally missed the point, and you have no idea of the culture and practices, built up over many years and with the experience of some very, very hard lessons, which exist in professional aviation, both civil and military. This hobby could , would, do well to follow their example.

Regards,

David Gladwin.

I don't believe you have a hidden agenda, but I do believe that you have somewhat of a different perspective on jet model aviation. Yes, I realize that we could be in trouble as a segment of the hobby if there is a serious accident, and yes want the flying of jets to be taken seriously, but this is a hobby, not "professional aviation" (which by the way, has its own problems - see the "Citation Jet Boat" thread). I think you should drop down just a notch and take into account that these are not commercial full-size aviation products being operated by "professional aviators" (which we all know is no guarantee of safety either)"



Well said. I think you cannot expect really professional behavior from many modellers. Nor even a most basic UNDERSTANDING of what happens. It's very surprising nowadays to see the amount of pilots who essentially see it as a big shiny toy to drive...they do not have even the most rudimentary schoolboy understanding of aerodynamics that is second nature to a guy like you. Like you, I think David's expectations are too high. But I suppose he is correct in that "professionalism" is at least a target to AIM for, try to get as close as we can, even if we never get where we really need to be, somewhere near the level of full-scale.


"and sometimes, "stuff happens.""

Sometimes. And sometimes there is no glue on a spar!


" IMHO, the manufacturer has outlined a probable cause in a timely manner and offered a solution for paying customers, so case closed..."

I have a different perspective. This is a company with a long, sordid track record of being somewhat less than candid, and putting out products that are often somewhat less than well-made. And I took their press release as nothing but some basic glad-handing, foisting off any potential problem as operator error, and offering some scraps of carbon fiber as a palliative. In other words....it smacked of BS! But I have an open mind, I don't know why this lightning crashed, but I would not be surprised in the slightest to hear it was a manufacturing defect.