20 years ago I worked as an aircraft Mechanic. It was hard to feel completely comfortable when inspecting Aluminum structures. When an Al structure started to have problems(corrosion etc..) one could visually see signs of problems long before they were structurally significant.
I just don't see how composite structures can be treated the same way. The structure can fail from the inside out, and performing sophisticated inspections on parts that "look" fine will take some real paperwork discipline. This particular aircraft (According to news reports) had: 1)A previous hard landing. 2)A previous repair to the V-Stab mounting point. In hind sight both things should have caused increased monitoring of these components. Increased monitoring is easy when it means look at the part with a flashlight or some spray on crack finder, but it's a harder thing when it means, ultrasonic, x-ray or other specialized inspections requiring removal of the V-Stab. The Aerospace industry has seen composite construction as a big win in terms of production flexibility and and weight reduction. It will take time to see if the increased inspection costs associated with composite construction will become an issue now. Paul RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
