Angel's Shadow - RIP

[Brian Young]

Adrian, sorry about your plane. Dont have an AS but
have Rev Pro w/ similar construction. Please send
photos.

Thanks,


--- adriancwong at earthlink.net wrote:
> I was out flying with my Angel's Shadow this past
> Saturday. The plane had
> only about 60 flights, and was finally fully trimmed
> to my liking. On its
> fifth flight of the day, while it was on its down
> wind trim path, the left
> top and bottom wing panel suddenly separated and
> ripped apart in mid air.
> The next thing I noticed were the two wing panels
> floating in mid air in
> slow motion, and the rest of the plane rolling onto
> the far right side of
> the embankment.
> 
> After I recovered from my initial shock, follow by
> much cursing in the pit
> area, my friends and I set out to retrieve the
> wreckage. Following a ten
> minutes search over a large loose dirt area, under
> the rare grueling - 95
> degrees - October Californian sun, we recovered the
> two wing panels. As we
> were picking up the wing panels, I remembered
> noticing a separation on the
> leading edge of the right wing panel a month ago; I
> had promptly applied CA
> to cure the problem. At that time, there was no
> visible problem on the left
> wing. However, another friend of mine, who is a
> fellow Shadow owner, had
> informed me that he had noticed the same separation
> problem on his plane
> also.
> 
> Unfortunately, following an hour of intensive
> search, with many cuts by the
> tall sage brush, we could not locate the rest of the
> airplane. Apparently,
> there is a huge swamp right next to the tall
> embankment. With the tall grass
> and weeds covering the entire area, it completely
> swallowed the whole plane.
> Not only did I lose the airplane, I couldn't even
> recover a single piece of
> equipment for future use.
> 
> Later on that evening, after much beer pounding to
> ease my pain, I think I
> finally discovered the main reason for the crash.
> The first thing I noticed
> was that the wing broke right next to where the wing
> tube ends. Apparently,
> in order to save weight, the manufacturer installed
> only three thin foam
> spars inside the wing, thus; seriously jeopardize
> the rigidity of the wing.
> Unfortunately, due to the many snapping maneuvers we
> have in FAI, it
> weakened the integrity of the wing over time. Since
> there was no main spar
> to support the wing, the area from the end of the
> wing tube to the tip of
> the wing flexes tremendously. Eventually, it opened
> up a gap between the two
> wing panels (on the leading edge), and the wind did
> the rest.
> 
> I have accepted over the years that all planes have
> an invisible expiration
> date stamped inside. If we keep flying the plane,
> something will eventually
> happen. But, to lose a relatively new airplane due
> to manufacturer's
> negligence, it's pretty hard to swallow. I sincerely
> hope this is an
> individual case, however, I will strongly urge all
> Shadow owners to
> carefully inspect their airplane.
> 
> I have taken some pictures on the wing panels, if
> anyone is interested,
> please contact me off line.
> 
> Adrian Wong
> 
> Chingbergh Enterprises, Inc.
> 1555 Lakeside Drive, Suite # 194,
> Oakland, CA 94612
> Tel: (510)452-1005
> Fax: (510)452-0378
> E-mail: info at chingbergh.com
> www.chingbergh.com
> 
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