This is the part that broke, the rear fin attach spar. It broke due to stress when inspected closely by a Transport Canada metallurgist. The cause was a crack that initiated at a rivet hole witch did have signs that it had been cracked for some time but the part was not corroded in the least. What made it break on that flight I’ll never know but I’m thankful I was alone & in the area I was in. A few theories of how it was originally cracked are: someone pushed on the fin the wrong way when moving the AC, it could have been hit with some jet-blast when it was tied down (my old parking place was rather vulnerable). Myself I think it broke because its 58 years old and I fly the hell out of it doing hard turns (30-60 degree) and constant side slipping at 100mph. For the purpose of getting great photos. I work by my self shooting aerial photos of farms & rural homes(flying and holding a 2.5lb camera). I push this little plane really hard because faster I work the more money I make. Most days I’ll take around 400 photos over 3-4 hours of flying. Out of the 400 pictures I’d circle the property about ¼ of the time searching for the best angle. I put 200 hours on the Luscombe since May 05, most of witch was shooting photos. One more side note I do have the aircraft looked at every 30-40 hours when the oil is changed.
PT