Airworthiness Directives; American Champion Aircraft Corp. Model 8GCBC Airplanes

This amendment supersedes Airworthiness Directive (AD) 87-18- 09, which currently requires inspecting (one-time) the sides of the front and rear wood spars for compression cracks on certain American Champion Aircraft Corp. (ACAC) Model 8GCBC airplanes, and repairing or replacing any wood spar with compression cracks. This AD requires repetitively inspecting the front and rear wood spars for damage, including installing any necessary inspection holes; and repairing or replacing any damaged wood spar. Damage is defined as cracks; compression cracks; longitudinal cracks through the bolt holes or nail holes; or loose or missing nails. This AD results from in-flight wing structural failure on one of the affected airplanes that was in compliance with the one-time inspection requirement of AD 87-18-09, plus 4 other ACAC Model 8GCBC accidents and 11 service difficulty reports (SDR's) of compression cracked spars. The actions specified by this AD are intended to detect compression cracks and other damage in the wood spar wing, which, if not corrected, could eventually result in in-flight structural failure of the wing with consequent loss of the airplane.