Static load test 25/2-2007 It's actually quite an event, that we did the static test. As the only ones in the world, the danish authorities requires us to do it. I suppose that a company that has 5000+ aircraft flying, knows what they are doing. On the other hand, it's nice to know that it can actually do it. The test was very exciting to do, it's not everyday that you get to see something like that. The test is done with the plane on it's back, so the first thing we did was to flip it over, we built a jig of steel to support it. When this is dont, you can start to load it. You have to do some calculations of course, an engineer did that part for us. The test is performed at 3,8G´s which means 3.8 times the max weight. The fuselage absorbs a part of it, the rest is up to the wings. The spar of the wing, goes from one tip to the other. The majority of the weight is placed at the center, gradually decreasing towards the tips. We put 1325 lbs on the center, and approximately 3875lbs on each wing. We put boards on the skin to protect them before we loaded the weights on it. We used bags of cement, each weighing 55lbs (4Pallets total). The weight didn't fit exactly with 55lbs bags, so we used smaller bags with wooden pellets as well to make it work. All the weight is on. Small dents in the skin develops when the wings start to bend. This dosn't pose any problems, as long as they disappear when we are finished. The purpose of a static test, isn't just to check that the wings dons't break. It's also important that they return to their original" shape" after the test. Both wings bent 4 inches at the tips, and returned to normal afterwards.