Big FEJ Hawk Down - wing collapse Reported
 

Reports are this was Lewis Patton's Jet. The same one that had wing flutter at Jets Over KY.

Well that sucks...

Didn't his FEJ A7 meet the same demise?

Yes, the A-7s wing folded. SMH

Where and when did this happen? I just flew with Lewis this past weekend.

Illinois jets.
Hopefully he will come on here and discuss.
Scott

Based on what we all know about FEJ's inherent design flaws and poor quality, flying a FEJ jet at rallies is irresponsible. For crying out loud this is two for two with the same pilot! It's not like this is some sort of isolated event with FEJ. When is this community going to wake up and take a stand against this company from participating in rallies?

Well said Andy. All FEJ aircra(sh)ft should be banned from rallies before someone gets seriously hurt.

Why would you take a chance. When a part of one of these aircraft fails, you are along for the ride. If you chose to fly these aircraft and hurt someone it is on you.

The poor general. He has been such a hold out with FEJ.

Another FEJ "check of the week" boys and girls!

Hmmmm.... He crashed into a roof of a house at Top Gun, an airplane hanger at MS afterburner, several others, I see a pattern here...

I see the same pattern ... CRASH.

FEJ models are very hit and miss quality wise. I just wouldn't trust flying one after all that has transpired. I'm not sure what if anything they are doing to insure proper design, structure engineering, and good composite assembly techniques. I scratch built my last jet and had one of my coworkers do the stress and bending analiyis for the loads my spar joiner and wing structure could carry, maybe they should spend a few dollars doing the same.

I wish Lewis' FEJ planes were as nice as he is. Great guy, but partnered with a rotten company.

Anyone know if the wing that folded was the same wing that wing flutter? Also does the large hawk have a wing tube or just pegs holding it in place?

That hawk had only one fatal flaw.

Anyone flying FEJ anything is flying a ticking bomb. Utterly unreliable airframes.

F= Frankly
E= Endangered
J= Jet

Right wing fluttered at Kentucky
Left wing folded at Illinois

Louis is a great guy. I flew with him at the OC Turbofest. His big Hawk had a lot of flights on it... and had reinforcements that were supposed to fix all the issues. I saw it fly at least 6 times... and I wouldn't say it was a "Danger" as others have said.

I wish Lewis' FEJ planes were as nice as he is. Great guy, but partnered with a rotten company. SUPER NICE PERSON.

ScottBased on what we all know about FEJ's inherent design flaws and poor quality, flying a FEJ jet at rallies is irresponsible. For crying out loud this is two for two with the same pilot! It's not like this is some sort of isolated event with FEJ. When is this community going to wake up and take a stand against this company from participating in rallies?


DO YOU HAVE, ENGINEERING DEGREE?? PLEASE PIONT OUT DESIGN FLAWS.?? IN DETAIL .{DATA}.THANKS

You don't need an engineering degree to see the flaws with FEJ planes. The crashes say it all. With FEJ, causation equals correlation.

This has been done ad nauseum on RCU by multiple engineers and PHD's in the field. Do the search yourself if you are interested. I'm tired of repeatedly digging this info up for the new rash of FEJ sympathizers.

+1

The reinforcement recommended by FEJ that were supposed to fix all of the issues are and were flawed. FEJ doesn't know what the hell they are talking about or doing. FEJ and Lewis refused to listen to my friend who is an aerospace engineer when he offered advice on how to permanently fix the stab on that Hawk. As a matter of fact Lewis YELLED at my friend in front of me at KY Jets last year because my friend actually had the gall to go directly to FEJ and their rep to offer assistance. All my friend was trying to do was help and he gets yelled at and personally attacked by Lewis. This is why I will never go back to KY Jets.

The bottom line is that FEJ and Lewis wouldn't listen to real solutions on how to fix this problem and now he is living with the consequences. Maybe losing two brand new jets will make them start listening to real engineers who give them suggestions (FOR FREE BTW) on how to make their jets last longer than one season of flying.