Well Richard the current owner does not live a million miles from where I am,he tells me that he is going to investigate further with the PFA to see if there are in fact any stress calculations or drawings extant,so there could be hope yet,notwithstanding this and even if she never does fly the design is quite unique,I seem to remember back in my mind seeing a drawing in an aviation magazine of her a long time ago ?
To answer your question fully here is the problem-When parts are made up from raw materials they carry what are called 'Approved certificates' these pieces of paper relate to each sheet of ply or metal etc stating that the materials are approved for use in aircraft construction,now when this system is often bypassed by well meaning keen builders there is no paperwork trail of either the material specs,or the inspection of said items,whilst it is probably fine the certification is null and void because of this,aviation is like nothing else for paperwork,it bogs people down that just need to get on with the job,sadly as is shown here it can cause problems later on.
Another aspect is that the original builder is no longer with us,so a lot of the mysteries are trying to be sorted out,the situation is far from being unique and there are lots of aircraft that fit this category stored around the country that will never ever fly because of red tape.
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Originally Posted by Bunkerbarge So Barry would it be worthwhile taking it apart to reassemble and follow the paper trail or is it the type of construction that couldn't be dismantled without damaging it?
Maybe it should have been targeted at the American market to generate the most from it. It look s just the sort of thing Americans like as a toy. |