Dallas air show crash

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Originally Posted by dbenj

Yes, I read it. Loss of SA provides an adequate explanation for this accident.

The P-63 turn not only overshoots the fighter parade line by 1000 feet (or whatever the prescribed flight line separation), but also was overshooting the bomber parade line before the collision. Why was he so far outside the planned flight path? Flying a circuit along a line along the ground is one of the first things a pilot learns, yet a highly experienced professional pilot misjudges by 1000+ feet in a parade of aircraft? There has to be more to the story.

It appears you are overlooking the enormous difference between the P-63 pilot's day job and what he was doing on the day of the crash. At a guess, 99% of his flying hours were logged flying benign and carefully scripted procedures in a well-equipped modern aircraft with a second crew-member. His experience level at dynamic display flying at low level in an 80 year old single seat fighter will emerge in due course, but will likely be low.

There are perhaps some parallels with the two fatal vintage jets crashes in Britain in 2015, where both pilots involved had very little recency on dynamic manoeuvres in agile aircraft, and I suspect the scale of changes to display regulation which followed the Shoreham crash will be mirrored in the US in the months ahead.

Regarding Duxford, the balbo was indeed impressive to behold, but I was there the year when the P-51 was rammed by the Skyraider and the pilot of the former thankfully survived baling out from a very low height. IMHO having numerous aircraft in the same piece of sky flown by individuals who - despite their best intentions - have little opportunity to practise the complex manoeuvres is an unjustifiable risk.