On 2005-09-19 21:50:28 -0400, Ron Wanttaja said:

The builder had apparently built one before, which crashed a few years back.


The plane that crashed in 2000 belonged to Den Burhans IV. He had just
bought it from the builder. His father, Denslow Faux-Burhans, went out
to taxi test it (father having more experience than son in
taildraggers) and apparently got inadvertently airborne, crashed, and
burned. Den IV was an ear, if not eye, witness.

My understanding is that the machine is highly CG-sensitive and flies
completely differently one-up and two-up due to the passenger
(radioman?) being aft of CG and pilot forward. Not that I have flown it
myself. I wasn't aware more than one was made, as this is a huge
project with well over 15,000 hours in it.

The crash was a sad, tragic business. Father was, and son is, good
people. .Den IV is quite a Luftwaffe expert and at one time had a
uniform and motorcycle and the whole fighter ace act. He is quite tall
so if you met him you'd remember him.

cheers

-=K=-

Rule #1: Don't hit anything big.