Jet, any thoughts?

[epidural man]

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What do you think about the Reno plane races crash? Thoughts?

A P-51 (plane meant to go 300) going 500+ knots - seems crazy to me.

 

[FiremedicMike]

What do you think about the Reno plane races crash? Thoughts?

A P-51 (plane meant to go 300) going 500+ knots - seems crazy to me.

I'm pretty sure that's why it fell apart 🙂

Wasn't there a photo of the rear elevators snapped off immediately preceding the sharp climb?

 

[pgg]

A P-51 (plane meant to go 300) going 500+ knots - seems crazy to me.

I don't know if you can really compare a WWII P-51 that's armored and gunned up for killing people & breaking things with a modernized P-51 set up for racing. I'm sure someone qualified did the math. 🙂


Racing airplanes is obviously a high risk sport, and the pilots and spectators buy their planes/tickets and take their chances. So long as they're not using the Transamerica tower for one of the pylons, more power to them.

😀



/ CSB - I did the anesthesia for a Blue Angels pilot a couple months ago.

 

[FiremedicMike]

I was reading today that new evidence is showing that the sharp incline caused G forces high enough to incapacitate the pilot completely. So much for the theory that he veered to save lives, it looks evident that he was completely out..

 

[MTGas2B]

So, the theory I've heard from a colleague is that the horizontal trim tab came loose. Apparently, when you're flying at 500 mph the plane really want to pull up, so generally these guys have a lot of trim dialed in so they aren't fighting all the time to keep the nose down. If the trim tab came loose all that trim is gone, the plane would nose up in a hurry this would cause enough g force to cause the pilot to black out as the plane slows down. Apparently something similar happened a few years back, only in that case the pilot regained consciousness and landed the plane. The thought is same thing might have happened this time only the pilot never came to. There are a few photos out there that show a view of the canopy as the plane in its final nose dive just above the ground, if you look close you can't see the pilots head, he might be passed out with his head slumped down. Would fit with the rest of the theory.

Link a colleague sent me about the accident,
http://skeptoid.com/blog/2011/09/17/broken-mustangs/

 

[jetproppilot]

What do you think about the Reno plane races crash? Thoughts?

A P-51 (plane meant to go 300) going 500+ knots - seems crazy to me.

I think it's AWESOME!!!

There are also mainstream motor sports where catastrophes happen periodically...Indy, NASCAR, NHRA Drag Racing...

I'm an advocate, dude.

That being said they'll probably have to modify the location of the fans, but you can only control so much when there are 500mph missiles flying at tree top level.

 

[Ketafol20]

This is a specially modified P51 with a shortened fuselage in order to race at these speeds. The original P51's were capable of speeds of 600mph when in a dive and this is why we won the war. But something went wrong with this plane and it sounds like it was the horizontal trim which MTgas stated. The G's would have been tremenous for a young pilot but this guy was 72 I believe. I did hear that he made a mayday call though. If so, I assume it was b4 he passed out.

 

[doctor712]

NTSB confirmed today that there was no mayday call made...

D712

 

[bedrock]

This is a specially modified P51 with a shortened fuselage in order to race at these speeds. The original P51's were capable of speeds of 600mph when in a dive and this is why we won the war. But something went wrong with this plane and it sounds like it was the horizontal trim which MTgas stated. The G's would have been tremenous for a young pilot but this guy was 72 I believe. I did hear that he made a mayday call though. If so, I assume it was b4 he passed out.

Sorry, but a 75 yr old guy shouldn't be flying planes at 600mph over a crowd, all those people died needlessly because this old guy couldn't handle those Gs at his age.

You should have to pass an annual rigorous physical including stress testing and g-force simulation if you want to continue that kind of flying past 55.

They should also be a basic test of reflexes, cardiovascular health, and general mental ability that everyone has to pass every year past 60 for a standard driving or flying license. I saw too many young people people die during my trauma rotations from MVAs caused by geezers who could no longer safely drive.