White Waltham Pitts crash
 

Possibly this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...eporting-story

So painfully shocking. Awful news.

That is so incredibly sad. Emily was at the top of her game, a great instructor and a lovely person. Yep, I know we push the edge of the envelope doing what we do but, of course, it'll never happen to us. Heartfelt sympathy, Mike, and blue skies all the way now, Emms. Sorry, it hasn't sunk in yet............

I knew Emily through work, where she will be sadly missed by many.
Whatever is said now will never be enough at this time, but my sincerest sympathy goes to Mike, her family and all her friends at WW.
G-APDK

Sad news.

Why does the media insist on "stunts" instead of aerobatics or a similar more accurate word? Does anyone ever "roll the roll," or "spin the spin?" Or, do people just "loop the loop?" "Hammerhead the hammerhead?" Would it be "turn the stall turn" or "stall the stall turn?"

Any loss in flying is sad. When it's a well known/well liked person at a well know field, so much the worse. Aerobatic flying requires great precision and practice. It's not statistically dangerous. Calling it "stunt" flying is inaccurate and unfair.

Agree all the way, Terry. We all get sick of "expert" journos and their dramatic misreporting. Qualifying it by saying it's what the public want to hear is just self-seeking BS. Aerobatic flying has risk; we accept that. But demeaning the performance of experienced and highly qualified pilots is unacceptable. :mad:

Just saw the news story yesterday, such a strange and sad mix of feelings.
I met Emily at an event a few months ago called "Get into Aeros" that she was a key part of, she was a very passionate pilot who loved the sport and is a big loss to the community.

Any info on possible causes?

Inverted spin?

I had a very good friend (who is sadly no longer with us) who had Pitts which he flew in his spare time. He used to fly in aerobatic competitions. He went into how he could get out of his aircraft "in extremis" quickly if he ever had to in great detail. He saught good advice from the jumping beans about how they would get out of his Pitts and got his parachute packed regularly by the same professionals.

So, one day he was practicing and his beloved Pitts would not recover from an inverted spin. Over the side he went at his critical height. He landed in a farmer's field and his beloved Pitts entered the ground into a copse nearby. Having apologised to the farmer, he got a taxi home, had four hours kip, and then came to work.

Jimbo believed (like me) that the principle of the 6Ps is always a good starting point.

JW411, I believe Rob Davies regularly practiced abandoning his Mustang and possibly also briefed others on the subject at displays - one of our fellow PPRuNers may be able to confirm that; well worth it as his successful low level exit at Duxford demonstrated all too clearly.

Sounds like it wasn't a spin then - a friend of mine owns and flies a Pitts and he says the recovery from a spin quite easily due to the size of the rudder - you just pull the power and take your feet off the rudder and hand off the stick.

The one place things get confusing is if the back seat pilot is looking over the top wing, the rotation appears to be the opposite, since the point of rotation of a fully developed spin is behind the wing to the back seater. So if they was looking in the wrong place, it would be easy to apply in-spin rudder, just making things worse. If you hold in-spin rudder, just relieving stick pressure will not stop the spin (Really big rudder), you have to push (or pull in an inverted spin) pretty hard

We will have to wait and see how the report comes back.... but it could have been a very late recovery from a spin or mechanical failure of the elevator from what your friend saw

I disagree. Though wild speculation helps nobody, especially not those bereaved, thoughtful discussion of possible causes is educational for all of us (who are pilots)