I wouldn't be to quick to blame Fiber Classics for the demise of Niklas' airplane for several reasons. If I'm not mistaken FC lightened that airplane for the TOC at Mike's request...I think some of the material was removed from the aft fuselage area. Even knowing this Niklas' Extra seemed very strong torsionally as are all of the FC Extras that I've seen.

One of the real reason for the failure might stem from a trailer accident we had last year when the eye-bolt hold downs for the models were installed incorrectly. On our trip to the IMAC Nationals last year both our fuselages came loose in the trailer...my 42% Radiocraft 330LX slammed into the aft fuselage of Niklas' Extra pretty hard. We checked it thoroughly but some damage was evident.

If this were a common occurrence you would have seen or heard this sort of thing before. As most of us know the FC Extra is a well proven design that's been around for many years now. I think Niklas would agree that this wasn't a design or quality control problem...I'll bet money that he'll buy the same airplane again without fear because it is well designed and flies wonderfully.

George Hicks
Team JR