RNO Air Races Crash

[Fubijaakr]

I've worked on and inspected my fair share of old airplanes. I'm not sure I'm 100% correct, but it might be time to park some of this WWII stuff? I know a good portion of the airplane has been replaced, but most of the mods are done to make it go faster. Racers might ought to be built from scratch and built just to race. The P51 was engineered to carrry weapons and fight.

Exactly. Time to move on. Race F-86s!

 

[ultrarunner]

I've worked on and inspected my fair share of old airplanes. I'm not sure I'm 100% correct, but it might be time to park some of this WWII stuff? I know a good portion of the airplane has been replaced, but most of the mods are done to make it go faster. Racers might ought to be built from scratch and built just to race. The P51 was engineered to carrry weapons and fight.

I'd agree. With the INSANE amount of money and wealth these folks play with, they could easily design and build a purpose-built racing machine. Something that can actually tolerate 500 kts indicated and the associated G's!

 

[dustrpilot]

I was there also and saw the whole thing from the time of the initial pullup. My point of reference was the west side of the airport facing pylon nine about 100 yards away. He was coming around the last pylon when the aircraft snapped level and then violently pulled vertical, most likely 20 G's. That stress would have caused the tailwheel to fall out. My guess is that he was unconscious from that point. The aircraft continued a vertical climb and right roll until it was pointed straight down and horizontal to impact. At the top point inverted, you can see in the photo that the pilot is slumped forward in his seat face down. The subsequent photos right before impact, he is no longer visible in the cockpit. I agree that his seat and or harness failed because of the violent pitch change, but disagree that he was still capable of flying the aircraft, or that the aircraft stalled. It was producing full power and hit at 300+ mph.

If it actually hit 20 g's I believe it would have shed it's wings.

 

[HalinTexas]

Ack, very well written explanation of how trim works. I think you hit the nail on the head; when that tab came off the nose came up so fast that he didn't have time to react before the G's took him out.

To HalinTexas, you trim for level flight, not for a turn. You're going way off the grid talking about turning and trimming.

That may be true under normal flying conditions. But he's racing and in extended high bank turns. You trim for speed, as well. With the throttle most likely wide open and very steep banked turns, there will be some diminished speed in the turns as vertical lift almost disappears. Much like steep turns (45º bank) during training. I've never flown a P51 or any racer, I don't know what the control forces in a 70º bank turn are, but I can't imagine holding it for an extended period of time. I wouldn't be surprised if they're using quite a bit of trim adjustment even if in small amounts.

Reno course

If the grandstands are the southern end of this course, that is an extended turn coming off of a longer straight away. If the winds were out of north or NW, there would be considerable loading while making this turn to stay on the course as well as "in the race."

But you're right. I'm probably way off base.

 

[ultrarunner]

Interesting that with all the extensive mods, they still use that tiny little elevator trim tab, and a single one at that. Be relatively simply to add a second one, or better yet, get rid of them and go with stab trim instead.

But as someone else suggest, they guys ain't gonna add weight unless it adds speed.

So there you go.

 

[DznFr$$]

Obviously, no one knows at this point what the G-load was. Investigators say there was a flight data recorder on board. Maybe that will shed some light on the actual conditions. In any case, it was abrupt and violent. The plane was at its fastest coming out of the valley of speed around pylon 8 to 9 when it happened. The Mustang has a trim tab on each elevator. Interestingly, there is a full page photo of Galloping Ghosts tail on page 49 of the Reno Air Race program.

 

[Bringupthebird]

Be relatively simply to add a second one, or better yet, get rid of them and go with stab trim instead.
.

Loading up a jackscrew on a stab trim??

 

[wnplt]

"Loading up a jackscrew on a stab trim?"

That didn't go so well for Alaska Flight 261

 

[dougdrvr]

Interesting that with all the extensive mods, they still use that tiny little elevator trim tab, and a single one at that. Be relatively simply to add a second one, or better yet, get rid of them and go with stab trim instead.

But as someone else suggest, they guys ain't gonna add weight unless it adds speed.

So there you go.

I've heard from several sources that the pitch trim was modified to add electric actuation.

Ack's discription is well written and spot on.

 

[dougdrvr]

Exactly. Time to move on. Race F-86s!

There is a jet class. Anyone wants to race an F-86 could, if qualified and meet the safety inspections would be free to do so. Except for the "D" model (I don't think they allow afterburners)