Redbull Air Race crash in Perth (pilot OK)

[MichaelJP59]

From a thread elsewhere on PPrune...

Any aeros guys care to hazard an opinion on what happened?

Red Bull Air Race Plane Crashes Into Swan River (http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/red-bull-plane-crashes-into-river-20100415-sg9o.html)

Red Bull loses wings - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/04/15/2874174.htm)

Seemed to get wings level fractions of a second before ditching which must have saved a serious cartwheel.

[BackPacker]

Seems like he overbanked in that last turn causing a rapid descent. He managed to roll level in time but I can't tell if he stalled at the last possible moment or did not pull up for some other reason.

Apparently got out alive though, which is nothing short of a miracle.

[Rocket2]

Hell of a way to wash off the volcanic dust :\
Glad all is well with the pilot - someone was watching over you :ok:

[onetrack]

According to one eyewitness, he dropped like a stone. Sounds awfully like a stall to me. Descriptions from others, are that a wing hit the water first, and he was a long way from being level. The camera in the plane seems to show a fairly level impact, though. The weather hasn't been kind to him, he's grizzling about it. He must have some decent kind of harness to get out relatively unscathed, with minor injuries.

[yawningdog]

If you look at the slow-mo on-board camera footage, you can see that the wing appears to stall indicated by the sudden buffeting.

[UV]

Any aeros guys care to hazard an opinion on what happened?


NOOOOOOOOO, please.

[sisemen]

First crash in 8 years and plenty of witnesses.

Story, pictures and video here:

Red Bull pilot praises rescuers - The West Australian (http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/7065915/red-bull-pilot-praises-rescuers/)

[jimjim1]

In:-
Red Bull pilot praises rescuers - The West Australian (http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/7065915/red-bull-pilot-praises-rescuers/)

There are three still images which show the propeller in the same position, not blurred. The aircraft attitude and the elevator position suggest a low airspeed consistent with an engine failure. There is also no exhaust smoke which is present in other images on the page.

Guess the unfortunate pilot has forgotten this for the present:)

Very fortunate to have been rescued so efficiently since the fixed undercarriage seems to have inverted the aircraft. I still vividly recall the Chipmunk pilot's notes on the matter of ditching.
# Do not ditch.
# If ditching is inevitable, the aircraft will invert, open and lock the canopy ........

[B2N2]

There are three still images which show the propeller in the same position, not blurred. The aircraft attitude and the elevator position suggest a low airspeed consistent with an engine failure. There is also no exhaust smoke which is present in other images on the page

I don't agree, that's not an engine failure.
The shutter speeds of these professional camera's are amazing.
2800 propeller RPM /60= 46.666 revolutions per second.
So if the shutter speed is faster then 1/46th second the prop appears to be motionless.
And it's a three bladed prop so only a 1/3 turn required to make it appear as if it never turned since the blades are in the same position.

The video shows a high speed impact, maybe an accelerated stall after agressive recovery.

[martinprice]

There's onboard footage on YouTube: YouTube - Red Bull Air Race Plane Crash In Perth Pilot Adilson Kindlemann OK www.AirCrashObserver.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWcvmOD1BsA)

...complete with slo-mo replay. At the 0:12 mark you can see the buffet as it gets into the stall then it starts a snap roll to the left.