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The events today at the Reno airshow are just horrific! The scope and magnitude of the injuries is just horrible!
I know many of you long time karters remember Mike Frank, a long time Colorado kart racer and aviation mechanic who was there tuning for a race team and I spoke with him tonight, he is still there helping and is physically fine and mentally, well… His words are “mentally shredded”.
Just a large group of people out there racing and having fun with friends. I know I will keep all these people (who they are calling a mass casualty situation) in our thoughts and prayers.
Seems the craft may have lost an elevator trim tab, climb suddenly, rolled then half looped into the crowd. The pilots take a risk going in but you don’t expect the spectators to be in harms way. Oh man!
This gets me thinking, all our petty racing politics seem pretty insignificant. Doesn’t it?
Lets Love our families and work at getting our racing family back together and spend time with our racing family as a whole again! Life is passing by and as we see here, it can and be short. If a group of strangers can lift a burning car off of a man, we should be able to put the petty crap aside and not tolerate the BS and re-establish what the RACERS WANT!!! The track owners and shops certainly stand to benefit if it is successful, but the racers and families would be the true winners.
Anyway, I hope the dead rest in peace and the families can have some comfort and the injured heal quickly and fully.
And I am so happy Mike Frank is o.k.
Rick
Beautiful, Rick.
The videos are terrible, and I think you’re right about the failures that caused it.
If there’s anything hopeful about this crash, it’s that the victims are at the hospital that saved my wife’s life, Renown Medical Center (formerly Washoe MC). I firmly believe that this hospital is blessed, I have nurse friends there I’m calling tomorrow, and per their website it’s “all hands on deck.”
CNN interviewed a witness that said the pilot made last-instant corrections to avoid the bleachers, so it certainly could have been far, far worse. Little comfort in that, however. As of 7:30 tonight, two have passed, 12 are critical, and 11 are in fair condition. All very badly injured, most awaiting surgery.
Racing can be dangerous as we all know, but this is never any easier than the time before.
Our condolences and prayers for all involved.
Thanks, Rick, and Take Care.
Rick, I agree with you on the karting issues. Wouldn’t it be cool to have some 20+ kart fields for the TaG events again? Everybody could race with somebody. Whether your a front runner or an also ran, you could race with someone. Instead of just logging laps.
My family’s hearts go out to the victims of the plane race crash as well.
It seems this image shows what went wrong in with the tail aero on the plane in Reno:
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110917/news/709169562/photos/RIP.
Wow. I’d have thought a trim tab in any setting could be counteracted by the elevator, but I guess it would take superhuman reflexes (and precision) to make the required adjustment when you’re, what? Less than 100 feet off the ground going 500 mph? 😯 I barely have the brainpower to pilot in two dimensions, much less three.
Life is precious. Never take it for granted.
Terrible circumstance for such an experienced stick.
Rick, I just sent you a PM on Eric’s suggestion.
Butler cox
Several of us have been discussing this incident all week on another forum, backed with several expert opinions.
General consensus is:
Old, original seat broke in high-g left turn, and why pilot isn’t seen in most pre-crash side views
Pilot went backwards after breakage, pulling stick with him, rapidly raising plane and breaking the trim tab
Pilot lost grip on stick, dropping plane violently
Landing gear was deployed during pilot’s desperate attempt to grasp something to pull himself forward and re-gain stick control.In some photos, it’s clear the ejecting seat is broken flat instead of L-shaped. I’ll be curious to read the FAA and NTSB findings.
Regardless, sucks.
First off, thank you Rick for reaching out to me, it was good to hear your voice and your concern… It had been a long time. It has been a difficult week for me, this crash really took its toll on me. The NTSB released it’s initial report yesterday. It is just an explaination of the basic facts regarding the incident, no findings yet. However, a member of another race team, who is an excellent videographer, captured the event as it unfolded. Probably the most difinitive video evidence of the event. It can be viewed here:
http://www.aafo.com/hangartalk/showthread.php?t=9356The NTSB report can be found here:
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20110917X22412&key=1
Now a couple of facts:
1. The seat did not break, the pilots normally lean forward and to the left for vision out of the cockpit and the shoulder harnesses are left unlocked to facilitate movement during the race.
2. The sudden G-load pushed the pilot flat to the floor boards, doubled over if you will. He was out of it at the very start of the climb.
3. In all likelyhood, the pitch exursion was caused by the failure of the elevator trim tab – Photographic evidence just prior to the event showed a lot of nose down trim dialed into the elevator – not something normall for the really fast racers. When the trim tab failed,the aircraft started an immediate, hard climb.
4. The tailwheel uplock on a P-51 is designed to “release/unlock” at a pitch excursion of 9 G’s.
There has been a lot of speculation as to what happened, and unfortunatley, the media has picked up on this and is running crazy with all of it. Probably the best piece of advice I can give is to wait until the final report comes out from the NTSB. They are the experts and with all of the evidence available to them, they will have the answers.
Everyone take care, race safe and remember, life is short and can be unpredictable, enjoy each and every moment you are given.
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