[DeTomaso] Reno Air Race
MikeLDrew at aol.com
MikeLDrew at aol.com
Fri Sep 16 21:35:20 EDT 2011
In a message dated 9/16/11 18 14 33, forestg at att.net writes:
> There was just a bad crash at the Reno air races. Initial report is 12
> dead and
> 75 injured.
>
An eyewitness on a local news station just said that he heard a pop, and
saw that an elevator trim tab popped off, which would potentially cause
serious controllability problems in the pitch plane. The airplane probably
pitched up uncontrollably, then the pilot rolled to try to recover, but was
unable to do so. Had he rolled immediately when it pitched up, he could have
possibly transitioned to a tight right turn, but the nose was too high when
the roll started, and the thing just augered in.
I hate it when that happens. :<(
I actually had a somewhat similar thing happen to me in the C-5 a few weeks
ago. I was sitting in the jumpseat, and the pilot flying did a tight
360-degree 45-degree banked turn with gear and flaps down, which requires quite
a lot of back pressure on the yoke to hold level flight. He unwittingly
ran the stab trim full nose-high in the turn, and when he rolled wings level,
the nose suddenly pitched upwards. He was pushing full forward on the yoke
but the plane continued to pitch up; he had completely lost control. We
got through 20+ degrees nose high (max allowed is 15) and airspeed plummeted
from 180 to 108 knots in just a couple of seconds. We were on the verge of
stall when he rolled back into right bank, the nose sliced down through the
horizon and we transitioned to a right descending turn. I recognized and
pointed out the fact that he'd trimmed the stab excessively nose-up, and he
corrected it and got things under control again in a few more seconds.
We were no more than three or four seconds away from stalling out and
plummeting into the ground; the only thing that saved us was his decision to
transition to a turn. But if the nose had been higher when he rolled into a
banked turn (as it was with the Mustang today), it wouldn't have helped.
Aviation is a very unforgiving discipline....
Mike
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