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Re: Ladies and Gentlemen - Please welcome N5188M
Boyce, be very careful of the horizontal tail spar structure on the Mustang 2. I lost a friend because of either a design flaw or something that was too easy to build improperly. His name was Troy Channing, who was a fellow Formula One race pilot. He and his crew chief were out doing acrobatics over the SF bay one day, the tail folded down under load, and the airplane pitched forward so hard it threw them both out through the canopy. The F-1 group has several HIGHLY experienced engineers... one of them determined that there had been a problem with the tail spar and that it was not designed as well as it could have been. If you e-mail me I will put you in touch with the engineer who can give you the straight story. The Mustang 2 is not a bad airplane at all, but like the RV-3 there might have been a place where it was too easy to make a mistake while building it that resulted in a weakened structure. The pilot that was lost, ironically, was also racing a Midget Mustang 1, which does NOT have any design issues and is known to be a strong, excellent aircraft.
Originally posted by rampeyboy
Boyce, be very careful of the horizontal tail spar structure on the Mustang 2. I lost a friend because of either a design flaw or something that was too easy to build improperly. His name was Troy Channing, who was a fellow Formula One race pilot. He and his crew chief were out doing acrobatics over the SF bay one day, the tail folded down under load, and the airplane pitched forward so hard it threw them both out through the canopy. The F-1 group has several HIGHLY experienced engineers... one of them determined that there had been a problem with the tail spar and that it was not designed as well as it could have been. If you e-mail me I will put you in touch with the engineer who can give you the straight story. The Mustang 2 is not a bad airplane at all, but like the RV-3 there might have been a place where it was too easy to make a mistake while building it that resulted in a weakened structure. The pilot that was lost, ironically, was also racing a Midget Mustang 1, which does NOT have any design issues and is known to be a strong, excellent aircraft.
here we go again 
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