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I am just now accessing my e-mail again after spending a few weeks in the
USA and being able to make the Lancair Fly In at Redmond. On reading Lancair
Mailing Lists numbers 94 and 95, I am compelled to comment on some
inaccuracies written therein.

Firstly my Lancair 320 did not have a test flight incident. The aircraft in
question is owned by Dr. Michael Fopp and he has already advised via the LML
of the circumstances that caused that unfortunate event. I.e. the fact that
he had been supplied a nose strut that had been discontinued by the factory
as unsuitable for use due to shimmy problems.

The choice not to make high speed taxi runs was NOT born out of our
certifying authorities restrictions but out of Michael's personal choice. I
decided to conduct high speed taxi tests on my aircraft and was able to use
the main runway at an international airport with the controllers being
extremely helpful in arranging other traffic and my runs so as to cause
minimum disruption to all concerned. The biggest problem I had was resisting
the urge to pull back and FLY but I heeded the advice of getting a factory
pilot to perform the initial testing and the maiden flight was performed by
Don Goetz a few weeks later.

Also, the day after it's maiden flight, the CAA's chief light aircraft test
pilot Bob Cole who was also the person at the controls of Michael Fopp's
aircraft during the incident, test flew my plane with Don Goetz in the right
hand seat and gave it an excellent report. He did however comment on a
noticeable stability  improvement, compared to a version with the small
horizontal stabiliser that he had conducted comprehensive test flights on
previously. Let us not forget that the Australian CAA had prior to any UK
registered "320" being flown, deployed a professional test pilot to conduct
comprehensive test flights on a 320/360 with the original small tail. Their
conclusions ( Not the UK CAA's ) and restrictions were what made the factory
come out with the Mk II version and then standardise as such and admit that
it was an improvement over the original. The expanded CG envelope seems to
justify this.

Yes we have restrictions placed on us in UK compared to other countries,
some very frustrating and others understandable, however, let us not
disparage the authorities for issues that are not of their making. I was
issued a full permit to fly by our CAA with only 5 hours total time on the
aircraft, not bad for a bureaucratic bunch of Brits suffering from " NIH "
syndrome.

It was good meeting up with a lot of the contributors to this list in
Redmond, hope to be back there again next year.

Fly Safely,

Michael Holland,

G-PJMT

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