Reno 2011

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Reno 2011

It will all come out at the end of the investigation. My source was there, came home late Sat.. the tremendous G force put the pilot into the bottom of the aircraft. I followed it from the beginning on Friday.
Many thoughts are still sorting themselves out. The T-28 was from Ohio too! I had met and talked with both pilots in the past. I am sorry , my brain just froze..
I intend to go fly this morning and just reflect on the uncertianty (sp) of life. God Bless the families .

[flyguy]

Re: Reno 2011

Did he do a loop? What was that video of him coming past the camera (looked like from the stands,) up side down, moving left to right??
DC

[lfries]

Re: Reno 2011

From my view approx. 100 yards east of the impact spot He initially appeared to be doing a may day pull up. However the what appeared to be a pull up went into a loop in the normal direction of flight for AC coming to the finish line.. Near the top the plane rolled inverted to the right est. 90 deg (south). and continued down the back side of the loop until impact. The down trajectory would have required lots more altitude to recover from the loop. From where I was, front of self seating area just east of the box seats after the loop he was moving left to right. But not very far right. Once he started down it was like going from slow motion to fast forward. The videos I have seen seem to be in fast forward from the start of the loop.

[M Towsley]

Re: Reno 2011

My friends, who go there every year and also own a Mustang, told me it was the hardest pull up they had seen done by a Mustang. Guess it depends upon the point of view.

[lfries]

Re: Reno 2011

Ones view might also depend on when they picked it up. I thought she was hi way before the loop commenced. My son picked it up when I said something and the loop was near the top when he saw it.

[flyguy]

Re: Reno 2011

Lloyd,
I'm not sure I can picture one thing you say; that he rolled inverted at the top of the loop? I picture the top of a loop normally being inverted, and going the opposite direction to the start of the loop.
I haven't been there for a while--the planes still come by the stands going left to right, correct?

Don't mean to belabor this, but people who know I fly have been asking me about it and I still don't quite understand how the maneuver went.
DC

[lfries]

Re: Reno 2011

Yes he was inverted then rolled to the right. Left to right is correct. I haven't seen a video from the north or south. I would say the loop started just before he got to the tall grandstand. I read an article this morning that someone was saying he was flying with the trim which per the person is suppose to be a no no. It was in the Reno Newspaper website but I havent been able to find my way back to it. I believe the same article said the tailwheel would deploy at 9g's. I'm pretty sure the article was in an article about the hold harmless clause on the ticket. I will post a link if I get to it.

[lfries]

Re: Reno 2011

This should be a good link to the article I mentioned above.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20110922/EVENTS05/110921044/Experts-Disclaimer-Reno-Air-Races-ticket-won-t-stop-civil-lawsuits?odyssey=mod_sectionstories

[N74DV]

Re: Reno 2011

I find it a bit irritating that in the article, Matt Jackson, claims to have unequivocally determined the exact cause of the crash. As if he were sitting right beside the ill fated pilot during the entire ordeal. It's a theory only at this point.

[Craig]

Re: Reno 2011

I must agree with DJ Vegh

As someone that is a fan and has always enjoyed several trips to Reno for the races, the whole situation is tragic and disheartening.

Especially when we have to listen to the non-aviation general public being fed news from liberal biased, non-aviation savvy media. But, then that is made even worse by the so-called Aviation Experts that should know better than make statements like one in the Reno paper.

I am not even sure what "flying the airplane with trim" is supposed to mean.

All this speculatioon does nothing but to affect public opinion toward aviation in a very negative light.

My thoughts and prayers to all involved

Craig

[Larry Lyons]

Re: Reno 2011

Earlier this week I spent an evening looking thru U tube and found a very good video, sorry but did not save the link, that shows him in a very abrupt pull up from level, as the plane climbed it started to roll right, at about 90 degrees it rolled back to the left for just a moment then continued to the right to inverted. At that point it continued in the loop and was actualy pointed back towards the direction he just came from. But only a little past vertical when impact occured. Supposedly another team monitoring the data link showed the engine hestitate at the top of the climb/loop, as it would from a very agressive pull up (fuel starvation) then as the plane pointed down the engine returned to full power until impact. You can hear the increase in rpms in this video. The data suposedly shows an 11g pull up, and again that fits with the tail wheel being out. All this will be released at some point and this a good thing I guess. The FAA did not realize there was a continous data feed form the stricken plane untill impact. Spot Avaiation had just a done a nice write up on the Galloping Ghost earlier this year that I had jusat read about two weeks ago. L

[jim cooper]

Re: Reno 2011

one clue MAY be what happened to P-51 called "Voodoo". Trim tab came off, plane went to 9000 feet abruptly, pulling MANY "G's" and pilot then regained control (after waking up) and landed, plenty shook up! YES! you can fly with the trim tab, liberal or conservative. JC

[M Towsley]

Re: Reno 2011

Maybe this is the Youtube link Larry was speaking of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thd7ZqjclZE

[Larry Lyons]

Re: Reno 2011

Here is an interesting link, I found this site months ago and had forgotten it. After the article are responses, most of which are about the bloggers religious beliefs but if you persevere there are a few that are very interesting. One in the middle and two toward the end are very well thought out. As to the nice video I found earlier, I spent an hour last night looking for it and could not find it again. The first time it was maybe 5 or 6 pages back so now is buried in so much copycat crap it may never surface again or maybe it has been removed as evidence, who knows? But the eye witness reports in this link fit with what that early video showed me. L

http://airpigz.com/blog/2011/9/20/the-galloping-ghost-tragedy-life-risk-and-the-future.html

[lfries]

Re: Reno 2011

Thanks for the link. A much better perspective than anything I've seen.