ORIGINAL: john agnew
ET
It would appear, and I say "appear" from the photographs of the stab and remarks posted by Paul Gray that the stab smacking the ground on take off / landing was not the cause of structural failure posited by Comp. ARF, so it "appears" that it could be a manufacturing / design defect.
As expected Comp.ARF have tried to suggest that David Gladwin is commenting in an innapropriate manner. Sometimes David does go in with all guns blazing, but as you correctly suggested, how would he feel if the same thing happened with more serious results and he had not commented. He was there , we were not.
If you asked me who are the safest jet model pilots are my response would be the guys who fly the real thing. They include David, Craig Gottshang and our own Alasdair Sutherland. All current or ex commercial / military pilots with vast experience and to whom check lists are second nature. We would all do well to follow their examples.These guys have technical and aerodynamic knowledge streets ahead of most of us.
John
Well said. My fear, though, is that DG will be dissapointed in the reactions he gets from an awful lot of modellers. The bottom line is, though, that DG is absolutely correct in his attitude about safety, but his aspirations will probably never get completely fulfilled. Still, it's a pinnacle of safety that IS soemthing to aim for.
Using that same caveat "appear"...it would APPEAR that smacking the ground had nothign to do with this...guess Geitz figured if it worked for Bob's Booms, it will work for him...but I do not KNOW....it MIGHT be a manufacturing defect, or it might(I hate to say it, but more likely) be a problem with the elevator linkages and the way they were set up that led to flutter and the demise of the aircraft.
As far as C-arf or their reps having the temerity to say David Gladwin is acting inappropriate, well...let's just say they are throwing stones from a really poorly built fiberglass house that looks all nice and shiny on the outside but is missing glue on most of the ribs and formers hidden inside!
But Bidness is Bidness, I would HARDLY expect them, with their track record, to publicly say "oh, MY BAD, so sorry, want your money back?" For that matter, I would not expect ANYBODY, even BVM, to do that.