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Reno Crash (Read 2423 times)

Reply #15 - Sep 17^th, 2011 at 2:25pm

patchz Offline
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My sympathies and prayers to all those involved and their friends and families.

If God intended aircraft engines to have horizontally opposed engines, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.

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Reply #16 - Sep 17^th, 2011 at 2:28pm

C Offline
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Quote:

There is a photo circulating now that shows the aircraft clearly while inverted, with the elevator trim tab missing. I don't know about all aircraft, but I know some where that will cause a complete loss of control (Piper Commanche, Aztecs come to mind).

Yep, and going back to the photos mentioned, if you think about the control loads that a trim tab is holding at that speed (a trim tab that has to hold the loads at 90kts and 400+kts), removing it could quite easily suddenly pitch the aircraft up and very easily cause injury (I once suffered a minor neck injury when a pilot pulled 4 or 5G without warning) or worse, G-loc (there doesn't need to be all that much g involved) - however fit a pilot is.

In 1998, another modified P-51, Voodoo (now quite well known IIRC), lost a left elevator trim tab. This is what the pilot said of the incident:

Quote:

Apparently, the left elevator trim tab came off the airplane at speed, causing the bird to abruptly pitch up, subjecting driver Hannah to over 10 G's of deceleration forces, and causing him to lose conciousness! When he came to, the raceplane had climbed to over 9,000 feet of altitude. A shaken Hannah regained control and brought Voodoo in for a safe landing.

If this incident is similar, it is a small consolation to Mr Leeward's family and friends that he probably knew very little about it.

« Last Edit: Sep 17^th, 2011 at 4:18pm by C »

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Reply #17 - Sep 17^th, 2011 at 10:55pm

beaky Offline
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I'm just sick over this... a terrible thing for all concerned.

But the "why?" matters, mostly to prevent it from repeating.

The trim tab theory seems to have the most support, and just from the photos I am pretty convinced that even some young whippersnapper would have to be pretty lucky to get out of such an uncommanded pitch-up, and even a pilot with Mr. Leeward's expertise would need luck to recover. That airplane was going about as fast as it could go in level flight when it very suddenly pitched up about 50 or 60 degrees!

It's happened before- with another modified P51 at the 1998 races- and it was dumb luck that saved the pilot, who was considerably younger than Mr. Leeward. From a warbirdaeropress.com article:

"Bob Hannah had a wild ride when the elevator trim tab broke off the aircraft and pitched the racer up at approximately 10 G's. Hannah took a G-induced nap but recovered consciousness high over the race course. The flaps had been mis-rigged, and led to undesirable pitch trim forces. At the speeds they were flying at Reno, the tab was sticking way out in the breeze and it had fluttered off."

I'm not suggesting these two failures were identical, just that the outcome was equally uncertain for both.

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Reply #18 - Sep 21^st, 2011 at 3:13am

Fozzer Offline
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...more news...>>>

http://www.flyingmag.com/news/reno-crash-update-telemetry-data-emerges?cmpid=ene...

Paul.

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Reply #19 - Sep 21^st, 2011 at 9:33am