Due to three fatal accidents in the past 18 months Chris Heintz, the designer of the Zodiac CH 601 XL Light Sport Aircraft has scheduled additional testing.  Testing will include structural load testing including an independent review of the results.  Testing will be performed on a production airframe.

as reported earlier at LightSportAircraftNews.Com, Chris Heintz recently released a letter explaining the decision for the review.  The original letter is posted at www. zenithair.com/news.  One of the primary reasons noted in the letter is the fact that the accidents involved in-flight breakups.

An independent, internal review is not un-common in these cases.

Zenith Air estimates that around 1300 Zodiac 601's are flying today, not including an additional 3,000 complete and partial kits.  Additionally, Zenith's demo model has flown over 1,800 demo flights over the last 6 years.

Design elements of the Zodiac XL's allow for enhanced stability and controll with "large amounts of elevator control" as noted in Chris Heintz letter.  Abuse of the airframes low speed control characteristics may be contributing factors in the accidents.

The Zodiac XL design is based on the original Zodiac CH 601.  The Zodiac XL is available in kit form from Zenith Aircraft Co. or as a factory-assembled S-LSA from Aircraft Manufacturing and Development Co. (AMD). It can also be scratch-built from drawings and manuals (blueprints).

Update:  Photos of the Structural Load Testing on the Zodiac XL Airframe are now available at www.zenithair.com/zodiac/6-photo-testing.html

{mos_ri:zenith air,zodiac,accidents}

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