JMasal@... wrote:

I was just reading an AVWEB report on the John Denver EZ crash.

<snip>

The valve maker AND supplier Aircraft Spruce
were sued by the family even tho NTSB did not find the valve faulty.

I read that too.

It's quite appalling to think that a parts supplier and manufacturer
could be faulted for the placement location of the part.

Let's just hope that if it would have made it to court it would
have been laughed out of existence.

Perhaps a legal defense fund could be founded, to help suppliers
and manufacturers who decide it's cheaper to settle out of court
than it is to litigate and win. The more they roll over like that,
he more idiots will jump on the lawsuit bandwagon. I'd gladly support
such an endeavor, if it assures suppliers will be able to stay in
business.

I wonder if the builder was sued?

Pat

If these guys will make spars, ya better git em fast.

I was just reading an AVWEB report on the John Denver EZ crash. It has been
maintained that Denver was distracted in flight while fumbling for the fuel
selector valve behind his head. The valve maker AND supplier Aircraft Spruce
were sued by the family even tho NTSB did not find the valve faulty. The
aforementioned companies settled with the families out of court recently. How
delighted do you think new innovative companies will be to supply parts to
the sportplane market??? Makes Burt Rutan look smarter by the day.

BD5ER@... wrote:

If you are going to start fresh then the "new" canard is the one to use
(and even this in my opinion is a Band-Aid, (but that is a matter for another
discussion) but the only readily available plans use the pre-made carbon
fiber spars and they are getting hard and harder to find. You could try to
make them yourself but unless you are a better than average builder you
probably won't end up with anything useable. It takes very good control of
fiber orientation and resin/fiber ratio to take full advantage of this
material and this doesn't even take into consideration that there is a lot of
"surplus" fabric floating around that is not compatible with the resin
systems most homebuilders might use. Without this level of quality control
you might as well use standard "E" glass.

Reading this and previous posts, I get the feeling that the group feels
carbon fibre spars are difficult to source.

As recently as Jan 19/1999, both of the following companies
have made carbon fibre spars for aircraft:

Gordon Plastics 800-575-5771

Composiflex nc.
8100 Hawthorne Dr.
Erie, PA 16509
Tel: 800/673-2544 814/833-8141
Fax: 814/866-0563

E-mail: nbp.@...
Description:
Specializes in creating components based on advanced
composites such as carbon fiber, Spectra, Kevlar, and
fiberglass.

Doug Fortune