NTSB Safety Alert CH 601

Ron Wanttaja wrote:
John Kimmel wrote:

The Zenair Zodiac uses wing warping. (They call it a "hingeless
aileron").

Not all of them. Zenair has offered a piano-hinged aileron for quite a
while...the SLSA version of the CH601 uses 'em, and some kit builders
have opted for them. Two of the wing-failure accidents involved SLSA
Zenairs, which have the piano hinges. Haven't heard the type of
ailerons for the others.

Ron Wanttaja



As best we can find out NONE of the accident aircraft had the hingeless
ailerons. This could explain why there has been no problems until the
last few years when the hinges started replacing the hingeless.

In fact the only commonality that I can find between the accident
aircraft is hinged ailerons and the sort of strange (for an plane that
the majority of the fleet is EXP-HB) fact that none of the aircraft were
flown by the builder.