having flown a very few aeros 4+G is actually rather a lot to most pilots - really, it's not the sort of limit you just creep up on not realising! try it some day
True. I just finished an aeros course and the first few times I pulled 4g to enter a loop I scared myself to death. But it's becoming routine now. Just to the point where I feel I might be dangerous in a non-aeros plane...
Anyway, your comment reminded me about another story, which happened some years after WWII in a DC-3 or something. The captain on this regular commercial flight had flown the same type in the war. On this particular flight it so happened that one of his old war buddies was a passenger, and he was quickly invited into the cockpit for a chat.
While exchanging stories, the passenger quietly slipped the gust lock over the controls - a practical joke they played every now and then in the war on inexperienced flight crews.
When trying to correct a flight path excursion, the pilot would find his controls frozen leading to brief, hilarous moments. Only in this case, the pilot (now operating under a different SOP) did not correct the flight path excursion with the control column, but by adding a little downwards trim. A few seconds later the captain noticed that this did not have the desired effect, so added more trim. And more. And more. The passenger, seeing that his practical joke did not fly, decided at this point in time to remove the gust lock.
The results were horrendous. The aircraft all of a sudden pitched down with something like minus 1 or minus 2 gs. Both the captain and the passenger, which were not properly strapped in, were smashed against the ceiling of the cockpit. In the cabin the result was even more dramatic, with several cabin crew and passengers breaking limbs and getting cut.
The day was saved by the young co-pilot who had remained strapped in properly, and been keeping an eye on his captain. He managed to pull the aircraft out of the dive, reset the trim, adjust the throttles (which, in this particular aircraft, were mounted on the ceiling, where they met the captain on his way up) and get the aircraft back on its proper flightpath.
I don't remember the exact outcome, but I would not be surprised if the aircraft was bent beyond repair in the process anyway. (Wish I had made a bookmark on where the original story can be found...)
Edited to say that Google is your friend...
http://www.airlinesafety.com/Unions/Sisto.htm I got some of the details wrong. Oh my.
