Quote:
Originally Posted by d-null
is 10k feet a normal ceiling for that aircraft? what was his ride back down like?
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I'm not sure being the unlimited planes are pretty modified. The one that crashed for example had 10 ft of wing clipped and the radiator air intake had been removed and it was using some sort of boil off cooling system. Meaning it probably couldn't stay air born for long periods.
This is a quote off another forum about the other P51 that suffered the same mechanical failure a few years prior to this accident, which also happened at a Reno race. (Voodoo was the air craft's name and Bob Hannah was the pilot.)
"About 5 seconds after Voodoo pitched up suddenly, Steve Hinton radioed Hannah, "You OK Bob?" "Yeah, this thing just popped big time", replied Hannah. What Hannah didn't mention is that the g-load from the quick pull-up had caused him to black out. He finally managed to reach the throttle and reduced Voodoo's power. At that point Hannah radioed that he "wasn't out of it yet," and that he wasn't thinking clearly. Later, he declared a mayday and made a perfect landing. . . . On the ground one could see what cause Voodoo's problems during the race. The left elevator torque tube failed when the elevator trim fluttered and departed the plane."
Bob Hannah was 41 years old and in excellent physical shape. Still, it took him a while to recover from the rapid onset of high g. Now, Leeward was 74 years old, with the reduced blood flow that follows all aging. He didn't have enough time to recover from the GLOC.
This was a picture of that air craft on the ground and notice it's missing the same trim tab..
edit..
btw this video had pretty much the entire crash from the time it started climbing till it rolled over and powered into the ground. Pretty sure this is the only vid out there that shows the entire crash from start to end.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=KRZYcD76c1c
IMO it's pretty clear from this vid that the pilot was not in control of the aircraft, once it's pitched up and it was just, speed, torque and where ever the rudder & elevators happened to be pointed that took it where it was gonna go. You can see how violent the change of directions were and I don't think there is any way anyone wouldn't have blacked out from that much G force coming on so fast.