Haven’t even seen it confirmed yet that he was showing off. Could have been aircraft trouble. Good minds wait and see before spouting off.
We know the Halladay family from both baseball (he coached my son) and through school. It pains me to no end that his children might read what Michael Felger said. As if they aren’t hurting enough right now.
Of course it is wrong do disrespect Roy Halladay or make light of his death.
But it is also important to look at why he died.
This particular aircraft is designed and marketed as a “JetSki with Wings”. The idea is that people will buy it as an expensive toy and use it to barnstorm at the local lake.
That sounds like a heckuva lotta fun. It probably is, right up to the crash.
The entire concept of a LSA JetSki with Wings is wrong. Aircraft are just too dangerous to use in this manner. Too much can go wrong too quickly.
If this aircraft were operated in a conventional manner, at higher altitudes in more usual attitudes, it would probably be a fine design. But if people are going to be pulling 70 degree banks 300 feet above the water, as shown in that video, it is not going to be long before that sort of thing catches up with them.
The design does not have the power to get the pilot out of a bad situation. The pilot, generally speaking, does not have the experience to get himself out of a bad situation. For instance, an accelerated stall at low altitudes is a serious emergency, requiring copious amounts of additional power and proper control inputs. The low time pilot is going to try to recover by going further into his turn to keep to his intended line, which is exactly the wrong response. And if full throttle is 100 hp, so that is not going to help much.
Not that this is what happened in this particular case. But that is just one of the things that can happen when you are 300 feet above the water pulling a 70 degree bank.