Bad Crash at the Reno Air races.

[SAnd]

A couple of questions for the knowledgeable.

Where did the pilot go? I have seen 2 or 3 pictures of the plane after it started the final maneuvers. I can't see the pilot in any of them. Would the shoulder/lap belts hold the pilot where we could see him if the he was incapacitated? The picture posted here clearly shows his head. It does look like he is sitting lower than in a P-51.

Wouldn't you normally need nose down on the elevator to counter the amount of lift generated by the wings at that speed? The pilot would have set the trim tab to a nose down. Would the pilot be able to push the nose down if he lost the trim tab?

I wonder if he got elevator flutter, either before or after the trim tab came off. The flutter shook the stick disabling the pilot or preventing him from maintaining control or damaging the elevator control system. Flutter vibration could also account for the tailwheel dropping down.

My sympathies to all that lost people.

[Singlestack]

On fox news today (maybe Megan Kelly at noon) they were saying the accident investigators are speculating the pilot's seat came loose/got ripped loose and fell backward into the fuselage!! Yikes! Having seen how cramped a P-51 cockpit is, I don't think there is room to "scrunch down" or bend forward so you couldn't be seen through the canopy. Pretty clear if the seat went back you wouldn't reach the stick or pedals...

Singlestack

[Ridge]

On fox news today (maybe Megan Kelly at noon) they were saying the accident investigators are speculating the pilot's seat came loose/got ripped loose and fell backward into the fuselage!! Yikes! Having seen how cramped a P-51 cockpit is, I don't think there is room to "scrunch down" or bend forward so you couldn't be seen through the canopy. Pretty clear if the seat went back you wouldn't reach the stick or pedals...

Singlestack

And holding on to the stick when it happened would pull it back, causing an intense climb and then dive...

[Scanker19]

A couple of questions for the knowledgeable.

Where did the pilot go? I have seen 2 or 3 pictures of the plane after it started the final maneuvers. I can't see the pilot in any of them. Would the shoulder/lap belts hold the pilot where we could see him if the he was incapacitated? The picture posted here clearly shows his head. It does look like he is sitting lower than in a P-51.

Wouldn't you normally need nose down on the elevator to counter the amount of lift generated by the wings at that speed? The pilot would have set the trim tab to a nose down. Would the pilot be able to push the nose down if he lost the trim tab?

I wonder if he got elevator flutter, either before or after the trim tab came off. The flutter shook the stick disabling the pilot or preventing him from maintaining control or damaging the elevator control system. Flutter vibration could also account for the tailwheel dropping down.

My sympathies to all that lost people.

I though the same thing when those pictures first came out. I thought they were file pictures at first because of not seeing the pilot.