I've been looking over the video posted by Knot4u in post #181 and there seems to be some activity around the elevators during the brief left roll at the beginning of the accident sequence. It is very fast, but to me, the outline of the elevator trailing edges becomes briefly asymmetrical and the port elevator seems to move up sharply coincident with the left roll. The motion is what is catching my eye, but when I stop frame, the contrast is not good enough to be sure of anything.
Other significant items visible are the tail wheel dropping just after the aircraft rolls wings level and begins to pull up.
If you watch the trailing edge of the port elevator during the pull up, you can see the trim tab begin to break loose and then separate, roughly at the time the top of the aircraft is pointed at the camera.
Just a personal opinion here, but the initial wings level at pull up seems to be the result of lateral control input, and the beginning of right roll shortly after commencement of the pull up probably marks the beginning of GLOC. The pull up itself was the result of changed aerodynamic configuration and was not commanded.
If 21 g acceleration were to be generated, it would have to be an impulse. Sustained 21 g would almost certainly fail the engine mount. They just don't build that much safety factor into aircraft.
There are a few "telemetry reports" on the web that are at variance with the telemetry report with 21 g of acceleration.
Here is one from the bearhawkgroups.com website dated 9-23-2011:
Telemetry downloaded from Galloping Ghost revealed an 11g pull up, fuel flow interrupted on the way up, and then the engine restarted when fuel flow
resumed at the top of the arc. The aircraft was making 105 inches of MP(Manifold Pressure) on the way down.
It may be that these reports can co-exist and merely report different moment's telemetry data.
I view the entire flight path from pull up to impact as most nearly representing a high g barrel roll, and there was no significant slacking of g over the top. The curvature in flight path was extreme and continuous to my eye.
Those predicting a broken neck for the pilot as a result of the high g, are probably wrong. One of our F-4's snatched 12.5 g which greyed the crew out but they suffered no lasting effects from the g exposure. The F-4 needed a lot of rivets replaced in the wings and tail though. The human body is very tough.