Thanks for the feedback, guys.
One person mentioned mil spec 6073 describes how a tree must be gently handled, using a crane to lower it to the ground. I'd heard something like that before, but can't find any literature on this. I went through 5 pages of google searching for 'mil spec 6073' and came up only with a document from 1950. I couldn't find any reference to any required method of harvesting. It says that every 'piece' will be examined (visually) and one in twenty will be randomly sampled to be tested for specific gravity, moisture content, and brashness (brittleness). In other words, all of the 6073 wood gets looked at, but 95% doesn't get tested. And the brashness test is for only 4 ten inch long randomly selected pieces of the randomly selected 1 in 20 pieces, not along the whole length of board. Ron Alexander mentions this sampling in a series of articles on wood in Sport Aviation starting in December 1998 and the following 4 months. Dan
