XtremeAir XA-41/42 banned from aerobatics

[Adam]

Some news I stumbled across today, but it seems that XtremeAir GmbH issued a Service Bulletin yesterday saying that the XA-41 and XA-42 are banned from aerobatic manoeuvres with immediate effect, a placard must be placed in the cockpit reading "AEROBATIC MANOEUVRES PROHIBITED" and the engine mount must be checked before every flight after a mount was found to have broken on both sides of an XA-42 during a routine inspection. Previously, the mount needed to be inspected only after every ten aerobatic flights.

EASA issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive today further enforcing the above, and saying that the condition found on that XA-42 "could lead to in-flight detachment of the engine, possibly resulting in loss of control of the aeroplane".

It's the second time a similar problem has been detected in the XA-41/42, with cracks being found in the engine mount of an aircraft last year.

That's got to be terrible news for the aerobatic teams and pilots who fly the XtremeAir/Sbach family of aircraft, given the only reason you'd have one is to fly aerobatics in it!

You can access EASA's document here: https://www.bazl.admin.ch/bazl/en/home/ ... -ead-.html

[RyanS]

Yikes, reminds me of an issue Rob Holland had with cracked mounts on his MXS. I imagine the factory will design some beefier mounts ASAP and get them shipped, but that won't happen overnight. I have not heard of those models before - how popular are they over there?

[Adam]

They're not something you see very often, but there are a small handful of teams and pilots flying them - the Flying Bulls and Team Xtreme are probably the best known examples. It's one of Phillipp Steinbach's designs.