P-51 Crash at 2011 Reno Air Races

[Chuck Baker]

Commentary from someone in the crowd...  What a tragedy...

I  was watching the race in front of the P-51 Merlin's-Magic pit when it happened ( about 300 yds. away ) . I wonder how many positive "G"s were placed on the 74 year old pilot when the elevator trim tab failed?  You can't see him in the cockpit in these pictures.   I figure he went unconscious and no one was flying!  And the "G's " were so violent that it caused the tail wheel to extend . The airplane was under full power from start to finish. You will see in the pictures that one of the trim tabs is missing.  The same thing happened to another P-51 Mustang--Voodoo--a few years ago.   The pilot, Bob Hannah, lost consciousness but recovered and was able to land.  He had also lost a trim tab.
 
A Mustang traveling at near 500 MPH would have a good amount of down trim dialed in to counter the pitch up forces on the airframe from flying at or above design speeds. The Mustang's airfoil is not symmetrical and the wing is not mounted at zero degrees of incidence, and neither is the horizontal stabilizer, therefore, down trim would be required to trim the aircraft to fly level.  When the trim tab departed, so did the balancing down trim condition, thus resulting in a very high "G" pull up.

[Chuck Baker]

Ted Brindle forwarded me this video:
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Video of the plane that crashed at Reno - toward the end of the video you see the plane roll, the tail wheel come down and then the elevator trim tab come off.  It does not show the impact.
 
http://airpigz.com/blog/2011/9/24/final-flight-of-the-ghost-video-by-jason-schillereff.html

[Chuck Baker]

An interesting theory forwarded to me by Ted Brindle:
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Subject: : Galloping Ghost crash

Ok... here's the skinny on the accident....  A P-51 normally has two trim tabs.. one on each elevator... this one had one and other one was fixed in place.. He was warned about the forces being put on that one tab.  It failed..  He had at least a 10G load when the plane pitched up from the loss of the trim tab and he went "nighty night" and probably never woke up.

Here's the "theory" of the crash from experienced racers.
In 1989 this type of thing happened to another pilot but he lived to tell the story. When flying a P-51 at 450+mph you need to have full nose down trim to keep the plane level. The elevator trim tab broke off and the aircraft immediately went in to a 10G climb, confirmed by the G-meter. The pilot came to, from the sudden blackout and realized he had slipped through the shoulder harness and was looking at the floor of the airplane. He was able to reach the throttle and pull it back to slow down and was able to recover and land.
 
Photo one is the airplane taxiing, note the pilots head in the canopy.

Fast forward to 2011
 
Photo two is typical oil canning as a result of the tremendous torque these engines put out at high power.

[Chuck Baker]

(continued from previous post)

Photo three is a photo of GG upside down with a missing elevator trim tab. Note all you see is the back of the pilots head indicating he is being forced down in the cockpit.

Photo four is a view of the left side nose down with the tail wheel extended and no view of the pilot. The tail wheel is held up by hydraulics only with no mechanical up-lock, thus indicating a high G-force causing it to extend.

[Chuck Baker]

(continued...)

Photos five and six are from the left side prior to impact, note no view of the pilot and the tail wheel extended.

[Chuck Baker]

(continued...)

Photo seven is the debris just after the crash. To the right of center above the crowd it appears to be the wing with the leading edge down.

A friend of mine was supposed to be there but didn't go and he has several friends in the hospital right now. The people were mostly hit by chunks of concrete, asphalt and aircraft debris. They were also hurt by the trampling of people getting out of the way.

[Chuck Baker]

Another forward from Ron Bober:
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I crewed on this Airframe the first two years Cliff Cummins raced it at Reno. Basically was just a –9 stocker with spray bars. Never worked on it after he wrecked it and it got “modified” for real racing. Did real good after the mods.
 
These pics are really great. Not familiar where he built this Racer in Nevada.  Think it has a Dwight Thorn “Pipe” engine. “Pipe” – no aftercooler on the intake. Maybe someone else’s engine . . . but Thorne was “initiator” of doing away with the aftercooler, and just up the ADI flow. Some weird sheet-metal on the “razorback”.  No rudder trim. Even I could do the ceconite rudder that good. 500 MPH Race Plane with fabric covered rudder !
 
These pics show that the seat did not “slide back” ! There is no place to “slide back”. Always though that was some funny reasoning, by all those that had their Cessna 150 seat slide bake or break.
For some reason they moved the coolant/oil boiler vents to the side from the initial bottom discharge.
 
Another friend reported that the elevator trim tabs were electric actuators from a Lear Jet.
 
Sure had a bunch of old farts working on it. Wonder how many rivets that group has bucked in their lifetimes ?
 
Reminds me of my younger days . . . Big Time Air Racing for Fun and Profit !
 
Cruser

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Building the Galloping Ghost...

You might be interested in some of these photographs, a lot of meticulous hours went into the rebuilding/modifying this one of a kind WWII fighter…………………….

Blaine Banks

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Building the Reno accident aircraft

International Council of Air Shows....and Galloping Ghost - good article

The interest in the Reno subject is coming from many directions. The following links came to me from a retired FedEx pilot and will put the lie to Galloping Ghost being a tired, pumped up, retread WWII relic.

They almost give a ground-up view of the assembly process of Galloping Ghost. Totally professional. I doubt that there is an original North American part in the plane. Almost seamless, rivet-free fuse, wing and tail feathers. Completely custom cockpit, etc, etc.

There are 190 pics in the first link re assembly, 128 in the second re roll-out and test flight. Excellent views of the horizontal stab, elevator, trim tabs (both left and right!) when you find them in link 1. Example - pic 86 .
 
http://www.warbirdaeropress.com/NewGallery/GG2009-1/index.html
 
http://www.warbirdaeropress.com/NewGallery/GG2009-2/index.html
 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44556695/ns/us_news-life/t/death-toll-rises-reno-air-show-crash/

[Chuck Baker]

Sent to me by Lew Galati:
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This is a small but poinient tribute to the pilot of the Galloping Ghost.

This is very nicely done...   http://youtu.be/PoRqI3DZWWU

[Chuck Baker]

Good news for the Future of Air Racing?

Bobby Graham says...
Good News for the future of air racing.
Our new crew member, Matt Jackson, is not only a race pilot, aircraft business owner and aircraft owner (he also takes care of Tom Cruises P-51) but he is also the VP of the Unlimited Racing Class and head of the Safety Committee.
We had a long talk about the Reno crash on the way to Mojave today.
Matt believes the cause of the crash was due to The Galloping Ghost having a CG too close to the aft limit which resulted in pitch instability. There are instructions on the P-51 regarding no combat missions with the aft fuel tank full resulting in an aft CG problem. Instructions specify to empty the aft fuel tank first in flight.
During qualifying Matt watched Galloping Ghost from inside the cockpit of Furias and could not believe how much trouble Leeward was having in keeping the Ghost in a stable pattern around the course.
Since Leeward lives in Florida and the Galloping Ghost was modified for racing in Calif., when Leeward picked up the Ghost for the Reno races at the last minute, a complete flight test program had not been done based on available information.
There is a video of the entire last lap of the Ghost before the crash which Matt showed me. As Leeward was coming around pylon #8 at about 480 mph after passing Rare Bear, he hit turbulence which pitched his left wing down, Leeward corrected with hard right rudder and aileron. Just as the aircraft was straightening out, he hit a second mountain of turbulence which caused the tail to 'dig in' resulting in a 10+ G climb rendering Leeward unconscious instantly and resulted in the tail wheel falling out. (broken tail wheel support structure was found on the course). As the Ghost shot upward the LH aileron trim tab broke loose. This can be heard on the tape, so the trim tab did not cause the accident.
Since the Ghost was racing at 480 mph with full right rudder and the stick full right, this is where everything stayed when Leeward blacked out.. Cockpit camera film that was salvaged from the wreck shows Leeward slumped over to the right in the cockpit. As a result, the Ghost climbed up and to the right, rolled over on her back and then headed for the box seats. Most in the box seats never saw it coming because it came in from behind them.
Matt has had long conversations with the NTSB who call the accident a 'fluke'. They are not going to recommend canceling future races. He has also talked to the insurance companies covering the races for Reno and they also say they are not going to cancel their coverage of future races. Now we wait for the FAA to make a decision.
Ironically, Matt bought box seats tickets for his good friends who stayed with him for a few days before the races. They were the husband and wife who were killed.
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Thank You for choosing
Bobby's Aero Services
1641 Sessums Dr .
Redlands , Ca 92374
(909)534-7675

[Chuck Baker]

Major changes to airshows, races aren't needed, FAA official says...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-01-10/air-show-safety/52479000/1