I've always had a bit of a problem with various "rocket scientists" scabbing "better ideas" onto Skymasters. Inevitably the scabbed on projects either fail to live up to the hype, or end up literally crashing and burning into yet another pile of metal. Then organizations like the FAA look at the model accident history, and lump the scabbed together "Spendiculous Skymasters" which have crashed or bent, into the data set with regular Skymasters. We "regular Skymaster" drivers are then left holding the bag with potential decreased value of our aircraft and increased inspection expense, due to errant cause and effect accident determinations, and subsequent buyer misconceptions.
I'm all for people trying new and exciting things to make a "better wheel" but the FAA should change the designation of all aircraft that have been modified to something like :LIYOH (Life In Your Own Hands) and then drop all of those aircraft accidents from the regular aircraft database.
Put a turbine on a Cub, but don't call it a Cub in the accident database when the wings fly off.
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