wrote:
wrote:
On 12 Oct 2005 14:33:47 -0700, wrote:

I was reading some information on Fisher Celebrity builders websites
and saw that one builder did not like the idea of glueing the fabric to
the ribs as per the plans. The ribs on the Celebrity are very thin and
he didn't think there was enough glue area for a satisfactory bond, so
he rib stitched.

The Celebrity is a biplane with a top speed of 95 mph, right? Has it
been a problem? Have any of the Celebrity's that had the fabric glued
had the fabric come unstuck? Ever?


I vaguely remember reading in the FAA/NTSB archive about such an
incident. It was a while ago, so I may be a bit off. What I remember
was that the pilot was killed on impact and apparently he was aware of
some minor seperation and continued to fly the aircraft until it failed
catastrophically. Might have been another bird, but I think it was a
celebrity. I'm not 100% sure though. You might try searching the
accident database for the celebrity if you haven't already.


That sounds pretty much like what happened to Steve Wittman.
He put off fixing the problem until after he got to Oshkosh.

--

FF