Well, today was a bad hair day. The motor died while practicing an inverted elevator, out a ways from the runway. I said "stay calm and land it in that open area". With the distance, it was hard to judge the distance from the sand pile. Anyway, the plane crashed into the soft pile of sand and the pictures show the damage. Besides the firewall, the cowl was broken, but believe it or not, the prop was not damaged. Tom will be shipping a new cowl and fuselage tomorrow. It isn't 100% clear as to why the engine died, but the Tygon line attached to the clunk was stiff and would only bend half way when the tank was inverted, so the engine could have been sucking air. The problem with that theory is the fuel line to the carb was full of gas with just a couple of small air bubbles. The engine was running on the high idle switch. I disassembled the engine (DL-50) and cleaned it up real good with no visible damage. The plane should be back in the air next week.

Chuck