RE: Altair 200 crash.
This is an area I rarely would like to step into. But the fact is simple:
i. A plane broke apart during its maiden flight;
ii. The plane was in a 3rd party's possession before it was handed to Snap Roll.
Its very simple here, I doubt that Snap Roll is intending to come here to slander anyone. We are all hobbyists, its a hobby. As a friend of his who heard what he has to say, I will say its more like he feels pretty stupid when he is told that the plane broke apart probably because the engine caused too much vibration etc. That is the stinger for him. Richard ... its not Snap Roll's intention to do either you or anyone in. Perhaps due to his age he may not have phrased things better but nevertheless its the issue of a plane breaking apart in flight. Something that pretty much shocked him and hurt him financially.
In all fairness, nothing is manufactured with a 100% defect free rate. Even with the best of multinationals who have years upoin years of experience they run on a 5% reject rate on the production line and some lemons do enter the market too. Be it Sony, BMW, Nokia etc. As you can see Richard, one plane from the Xtreme Composite factory has an instance of delamination. Did Snap Roll's stab delaminate? We will never know since no one took a HD video of it like how they track the space shuttles. Dead End.
Snap Roll ... its very true that the plane was in a 3rd party's possession before it was handed to you. Anything may or may not have happened. The truth, we will never know. That is a fact that you have to accept too. To be fair to Richard did you specifically inspect the stab at all during pre-flight? Dead End.
As for Richard, its most unfair to say its a F1 plane and only those with a F1 mindset only can handle her. A plane is a plane and is a plane bearing in mind the club president who is from what I hear a very meticulous man had done some pre-flight inspection, like I said, some though not necessary in detail. Dead End.
A stab will take many Gs when you are pulling down line snaps and other maneuvers, there is a certain amount of rigidity built into it and it will not surely break apart after a mere knock. Does not matter how light the stab is. Its not tissue. But might it have taken a hard knock? Who knows? Dead End.
Me personally? What can I say? I know that vibration from an engine will not cause the stab to break a couple of minutes into the flight. Like some have said, if it could then we doubt you would have wanted to let the plane fly, it would be so obvious. BUT the fact is we all can only speculate. That is not a good thing. It leaves a bitter taste in each party's mouth no matter what. Dead End.
Lesson learnt ... its not wise to save a few hundred when you should have purchased from the dealer directly for that added insurance. The you have legal recourse, it can be the Consumer Claims Tribunal or the Small Claims Court etc. Here ... well ... its a lesson learnt. Sad and painful but nonetheless one that is learnt.