I have just completed assessing the airframe to determine if it is repairable and have the following comments:

1) The plywood delaminated almost everywhere. Poor quality and surely not built for the long haul.

2) Landing gear plate delaminated. Also was not glued well, only sporadic application of glue in certain areas.

3) Firewall triangle stock was not completely glued. It would not have survived long based on the poor quality of the glue joint.

4) Engine box bottom was barely glued on. Poor application of glue to adjoining wood.

5) Engine box side plates which extend back into the fuse and capture the wing tube came detached at the glue joints all the way back beyond the wing tube interface. Again lack of glue. Note that the places that contact the bulkheads are reinforced with triangle stock and were so poorly glued that the whole structure could be easily separated from the triangle stock. A sure sign of a plane that would not live long in the air.

6) Further back in the fuselage, at the turtle deck/rear fuselage interface, the wood joints did not touch. Their was a gap between adjacent pieces of wood.

7) Lower hatch hold down stock (the wood that the hatch screws thread into) puled out. Again, very little evidence of glue.

8) Covering - I can not find a color match from any major covering manufacturer. What the heck is this stuff?? Also can not seem to get it hot enough to get the wrinkles out. I feared that if I continued to heat it I would burn through.

9) Cowling - The areas that cracked on impact revealed that the gelcoat used to line the mold must have set up prior the application of the fiberglass sloth since the gelcoat all separated from the cloth and exposed a soft cloth with almost no resin. The cloth was pliable as though it did not have enough resin to saturate it.

As I continue to investigate further, I will report further discoveries to the RCU readership.

Jim