From a colleague in the US
Subject: Fwd: [GSWarbirds] Reno Incident
So here is the scoop I got over the weekend. Turns out one of the
mechanics at the airport was on the ground team for one of the unlimited
racers and had the spot in the pits right next to the lost plane. The
ground team had a real time data feed from the airplane.
Looks like the plane had a high speed flutter on the port elevator trim
tab. The pilot reported a vibration.
· The trim tab came off in flight which caused the entire tail group
to twist. There are trim tabs on both sides and the asymmetry caused a
huge over load. Also high power settings require a lot of nose down trim
to stay level, the loss of the trim tab could not be overcome by the
pilot. The twist in the tail group made the tendency to nose up even
greater and caused damage to the internal structure in the tail –
looking at the pictures you will see the tail wheel is down and the gear
doors are gone – stuff was coming apart in there.
· The twist and the loss of trim caused a near instantaneous 11G pull
up – this probably incapacitated the 73 year old pilot and may even
have broken the mounts on the pilot seat. Note you cannot see him in the
cockpit. The 11G pull also caused a brief loss of engine power from low
fuel pressure – the pump could not overcome 11G.
· After the 11G pull up the airplane unloaded in steep climb –
with the G off the engine regained power.
· Without the pilot to overcome it the airplane torque rolled causing
a split S into the ground.
· The data showed that the airplane was pulling 105 inches on
manifold pressure on impact. The "normal" race boost would be 60
to 70. So the airplane was going just under 500MPH when it hit so no
fire just total disintegration.