P-51 down at Reno Air Races

[Sabre]

Official: More than 75 injured in air race crash

RENO, Nev. (AP) - A plane plunged into the stands Friday at an air race event in Reno in what an official described as a "mass casualty situation."
It wasn't immediately known how many people were killed, but a medical official said more than 75 people were injured.

Stephanie Kruse, a spokeswoman for the Regional Emergency Medical Service Authority, said 25 people were critically injured and another 25 people were seriously injured in the crash.

More than 25 more people were treated for minor injuries, she said.

Kruse said the critically injured were considered to have life-threatening injuries.

So far, 40 people have been taken to local hospitals by ambulance and one person has been flown to a hospital, she said.

The P-51 Mustang plunged into the crashed into the box seat area at the front of the grandstand at the National Championship Air Races at about 4:30 p.m., said Mike Draper, a spokesman for the event.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

http://www.ktvn.com/story/15483678/plan ... ad-airport

Added video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCNePeKn ... e=youtu.be

[Verbal]

It's the end of the Reno Air Races as we know it.

[flyboy2548m]

Yet another wonderful aspect of aviation that got taken over by people with more money than sense. The results have been predictable.

What is an octogenarian doing flying an unlimited racer?

[reubee]

http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/galler ... 802&Ref=PH

[OldSowBreath]

I was at the Reno Air Races when a furniture magnate from Dallas was killed when his super-modified P-51D (?) with counter-rotating props tore itself apart on a turn. He crashed into a mobil home park to the right of the stands but was the only one killed. Like Verbal, I see some big changes coming.

[3WE]

Some witnesses report that something like a control surface departed the aircraft as it went out of control.

[tds]

Speculation is about a missing trim tab: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44567064/ns ... nXo9HMwL4c

I'm guessing that at race speed there's a bunch of nose-down trim. I wonder what the control forces are like with a missing tab / how many Gs would be pulled in the resulting pitch up.

[GlennAB1]

A terrible tragedy. Not familliar with the P-51 but I'm going to guess that it was a flight (also known as "servo") tab that failed.

[ZeroAltitude]

Yet another wonderful aspect of aviation that got taken over by people with more money than sense. The results have been predictable.

What is an octogenarian doing flying an unlimited racer?

It seems the term "unlimited" turned out not to be correct

[3WE]

Just thinking out loud. There do not seem to be any clear witness statements on what the plane did- that is witness statements from "parlor talkers" that make sense. We hear that the plane first climbed, and then we see it go in in an extremely steep dive- but few comments in between....Did the plane pull up into a stall/spin?, or does it appear something else happened. And any comments on whether it looked like the pilot "awake and in control" or not. What about roll control? It looks like the plane was straight- but then there's the classic question of why he didn't "turn away from the crowd". Of course, the reality is that things unfolded too fast for a pilot to think about very much.

Bottom line here- the discussions and witness statements of the flight path and it's implications are thin at this point.

EDIT: Ok, I just read a quote at JetPedos to the effect that the plane "pulled up sharply and twirled in"....consistent with stall/spin... New bottom line: "Never Mind"

[reubee]

Speculation is about a missing trim tab: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44567064/ns ... nXo9HMwL4c

I'm guessing that at race speed there's a bunch of nose-down trim. I wonder what the control forces are like with a missing tab / how many Gs would be pulled in the resulting pitch up.

a post somewhere suggested that the on-board telemetry showed 22g's.

[3WE]

Tonight, I installed MSFS X.

Ironically, some of the "pretty pictures" while loading showed some air races in a hilly, desert-like environment, with virtual P-51's flying around pylons and even little-speck depictions of spectators on the ramp.

[ocelot]

a post somewhere suggested that the on-board telemetry showed 22g's.

If so, I'm sort of surprised the wings didn't come unstuck. Or maybe they did.

[ZeroAltitude]

a post somewhere suggested that the on-board telemetry showed 22g's.

If so, I'm sort of surprised the wings didn't come unstuck. Or maybe they did.

I saw pictures somewhere that clearly showed wrinkles in the fuselage.

[GlennAB1]

Interesting stuff from a chain email going around:

This Video shows the final flight of the Galloping Ghost and the
sudden pitch-up, measured at 22.5 G's by the
on-board data transmission equipment, which would have caused
instant pilot incapacitation.

http://vimeo.com/29519344

WATCH THE SLOW MOTION PART - starts at 8.00 mins and the trim tab comes
off at 8.52. The tailwheel comes down early which shows a high G pull.
Perhaps the real problem was a high G turn and pull up - the normal
procceedure to get out of the way if a pilot has a problem. The trim
tab then detached as a result of the high G, not before?



Subject: 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…………………….


Building the Reno accident aircraft

Subj: ICAS andGalloping 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/NewGall ... index.html

http://www.warbirdaeropress.com/NewGall ... index.html

Web site these came from
http://www.warbirdaeropress.com/photogallery.html